Why self-care is not selfish

by Riann Taylor, certified reflexologist, MSPT, and owner of Balanced Tree Reflexology

Seeing Clients in Worthington location (balancedtreereflexology.com)

Let’s start by talking about self-care. Self-care used to be big gestures that were typically only around my birthday each year. For as long as I could remember when working in the health care setting, I would make sure to take my birthday off. I would schedule myself a lengthy spa treatment or two which would allow me to maybe grab breakfast or lunch with a friend, followed by treating myself to coffee before picking up the kids from school. However, for better or worse, our birthdays only come around 1 time per year. Therefore, I was only granting myself permission to do indulgent selfcare 1 day every 365. In hindsight, I question how I thought that 1 day of self-care would support me through the other 364. As I have gotten older, I also recognize that I do not need to “celebrate” my birthday by giving myself the gift of a day for myself. I am worth more than 1 day. My perspective has shifted greatly. I credit many of my clients who have taught me some great self-care skills. Now I think of self-care as granting myself grace when I need a moment to reset. It is not that I am not doing anything, I am recharging from whatever is going on in my life. I do not need to have an “excuse” to give myself a break.

Some of my favorite self-care options include

·         Getting up before everyone else in my house to have a few minutes to myself.

·         Paying attention to my breath

·         Reading something other than social media or emails

·         Short or long walks

·         Talking on a phone to a friend

·         Seeing a friend outdoors

·         Picnic lunches

·         5 minutes of meditation or sitting quietly

·         Reflecting on my day and identifying things I am grateful for

·         Exercise

·         Not exercising

·         Canceling plans (sometimes being with others is not in my best interest)

·         Zoning out while watering my garden each morning

·         Cooking

·         Self-reflexology

·         Drinking a glass of water when I wake up and especially before caffeine

As you can see this self-care list is all over the place. But honestly, that is the best way to create self-care. It does not need to be scheduled into your day (unless you need that) and it does not have to cost anything. I think that spontaneous daily self-care is MORE important than scheduled. The important part is having some form of self-care each day. We run ourselves into empty each day, but do we find ways to recharge ourselves each day?

What exactly does self-care mean to you? Take a moment, grab a piece of paper and jot down a list of what you think is your best self-care options. Now each day moving forward, try to include some form of self-care into your day. Check back in with yourself each month around your birthdate to see how you are doing. Maybe even reward yourself with a bigger self-care activity like a massage, pedicure, or retail therapy around the birthdate day.

www.balancedtreereflexology.com