Being Good at Self-Care

I’m going to be brutally honest with you and myself.  Not out of soliciting a pity party but to just be real.  Self-care: I’ve been really shitty at it lately.  Phew.  There.  I said it.  As a wellness coach who talks often of the importance of carving out the time to take good care of yourself, of moving yourself up the list of priorities, I’ve found myself in the acts of overcommitting, saying yes way more than saying no, sleeping less and missing meals.  And I’m feeling a lot of guilt and stress around the fact that I have not been taking care of myself well!

I really became aware of this issue last week when I finally went to refill my prescription for Eltroxin, medication that helps with my under active thyroid condition that I have had for almost 20 years.  I had let myself go without it from anywhere, I’m guessing, between 4 – 6 weeks.  The impact of my body missing those daily doses is now hitting me with noticeable moments of exhaustion, short-temperedness and just generally being in a fog.

Why tell you this? Well, because my perception is that those of us in the field of health and wellness don’t often talk about our own struggles of maintaining a self-care practice, which then appears like we have it all together and practice what we preach.  While I can’t speak for others, I can say for myself that simply isn’t true.  I, too, can get caught in the trap of feeling that I have to get all those to-do’s checked off first, take care of my family, my clients and my friends needs and also not wanting to miss out on all the summer fun in between.  But doing all of those things first comes at a cost, to the detriment of my own well-being.

So, no words of wisdom except to highlight that we are all susceptible to being too busy for self-care.  The notion of needing to be “good” at it can sometimes do us more harm.  Self-care need not be perfect.  This has been a lesson for me in the importance of awareness, being compassionate to one’s self and gently working towards changing the pattern.  Not engaging in behaviours to be a good role model but finding behaviours that serve YOU best.

And with that, I’m going to honour my body’s needs and take an unusual-for-me midday nap.  Everything else can wait.