Is Self Care Really that Important?

Is self care really that important? Yes, absolutely! You owe it to the ones you love to take care of yourself, so why don’t you do it? It is probably because of these 3 reasons: 

• Not understanding its importance 

• Full schedules 

• Resistant to changing habits
  
  

Why You Should Value Self Care 

Women are caregivers. We take care of our children, our husbands, our aging parents, our hurting friends. Sadly, we only care for ourselves if there’s time or if we have a nervous breakdown and have to check into a hospital! However, putting yourself on the bottom of the priorities list is a real problem. Here are some things you risk: burnout, illness, fatigue, and depression. Self care is often ignored because it feels like a selfish thing. But it’s not. In fact, putting yourself on the back burner is ultimately hurting those you care for because you are not at your best. 

Break up with the idea that loving yourself is selfish. In fact, self care is Biblical. Jesus said one of the greatest commandments is to love others AS you love yourself. (Mark 12:31) The concept of loving yourself is not just implied; it is assumed. Your status has a great impact on those around you as in Proverbs 17:22, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” One way to look at guarding your heart is with self care. You will find the Scriptures are full of teaching on this. 

The best version of yourself lies within you. It only needs to be unlocked and revealed. Regular self care habits can help bring your best self forward. The Guide to Self Care in Just 22 Minutes a Day will make that possible. I shudder to think of the self you present without self care! Say it ain’t so! 

 

How You Can Schedule Self Care 

We all have jam packed schedules. Who has time for a bubble bath? Calgon, take me away! Very few can fit an hour long workout into their day. Sorry, Jillian Michaels! We don’t have time to plan a menu to make sure we have enriching foods for our bodies. Ramen, anyone? This is a real challenge that is not easily managed. I can teach you a way to overcome this problem with my Guide to Self Care in Just 22 Minutes a Day. 

My routine is only 22 minutes by design so that anybody can find time to fit it in. The absolute best time for self care disciplines is first thing in the morning. The first few minutes of your day acts like a rudder to your whole day. Think of it like priming a motor. Ok, stop freaking out. I know the idea of doing it in the morning seems ridiculous. You already struggle to get the kids to school on time and yourself into work with matching shoes. The solution is quite simple really. You must get up earlier. Hey, I said stop freaking out! Now, I didn’t say the solution was ‘easy’. I said it was ‘simple’. Most of us hate getting up in the morning. The bed is warm, and we had insomnia, our minds wouldn’t shut up, etc. Yes, getting up is hard, and getting up earlier is harder. But you, my friend, can do hard things. And with a few tips, getting up earlier isn’t as hard as you think. But the important part is that it is sooooo worth it. Taking time first thing in the morning for self care can fill your tank like few other things.  

So, problem solved, I just showed you how to find time to add self care to your busy life. You only need 22 minutes for the routine, so get up 30 minutes earlier so you’ll have 5 minutes to wake up. The book The Miracle Morning  by Hal Elrod is a great resource for more on maximizing your mornings. These tips will help wake you up:  

• Keep your alarm clock away  from the bed 

• Turn on the lights  

• Get dressed 

• Brush your teeth 

• Drink a glass of water

 

How You Can Make a Habit of Self Care  

One reason self care gets ditched is because we loath changing our routines. Our brains develop deep neural pathways so that we run on auto-pilot as much of the day as possible. You know how you get to work and have no memory of the drive across town? These pathways can be challenging to re-route. We all have tried adding a new routine to our day, but how many of us keep it up? My Guide to Self Care in Just 22 Minutes a Day can help you over this hump as well. 

The only way to break a habit is to create a new one (The Power of Habit, Duhigg). In order to defeat the neural pathways that dictate your current behavior, you must dig new ones to replace them. In order for you to make lasting life changes, you must change something you do every day. Don’t rule out renting a backhoe if you are especially stubborn! So the Guide to Self Care in Just 22 Minutes a Day must be done daily to be effective. In order for this to become your new habit, experts say you have to repeat the activity for about 60 days. But don’t get hung up on that. The important thing is that you have realistic expectations and embrace that this is a process. One thing that will help you follow through with a new routine is to tie it to the benefit you’ll get out of it. It has to be worth it to you, or you’ll stop. For instance, ask yourself why it is important to change this habit. Your answer may be something like, “I need to care for myself so that I can love my kids better.” You must be aware of the underlying reason you want to make the change in the first place. If it isn’t tied to something bigger, why bother? Think of it this way...commit to an outcome instead of a behavior. 

Another way to keep up the new habit is to reward yourself. We operate out of the pleasure and pain centers of the brain. If it is painful, our brains push us to resist. But if there is pleasure, then we are drawn to it. That is why you freaked out when I told you to get up earlier. That is painful, so your brain was doing its job and resisting that. You have to create payoffs for the new activity so the brain sees it as pleasurable instead of simply painful. Set up a reward system. These payoffs should come early and often. One example is that “I will celebrate with my favorite treat on Friday if I’ve met my goal”. Or a payoff may be something as simple as posting about it on Facebook. 

The Guide to Self Care in Just 22 Minutes a Day is designed to address the whole person: body, mind, and spirit. We start with the physical self and move into the deeper self by the end. Now that you are fueled up and fed, attack your day as the best version of yourself! I pray this routine, applied daily, will jump start you on a long journey of self care. 

The 22 Minute Self Care Guide is summarized in the image attached to this post. For further reading on this plan follow this link and complete the short form for a free download of the complete Guide: https://www.roarkcc.com/self-care-for-busy-women