Self-care is not selfish or indulgent. It’s an act of empowerment.
When you fly commercially they tell you to put your oxygen mask on first so that you stay conscious and breathing to be able to help others.
If you’ve taken a paddling instructor certification or swiftwater rescue course then you know that the most important person in the rescue is YOU. It’s your job as a rescuer and instructor to ensure your safety first so that you don’t also become a person in distress and add to the situation.
It’s time that you applied this same logic to your life. You can’t feel your best, thrive, or contribute to others in a meaningful way if you’re stressed, not sleeping, not moving, and experiencing health issues that are preventable.
By taking on self-care you not only empower yourself to thrive, you also grow your capacity to serve others.
Stop buying into the false narrative that you have to be selfless to be a good person.
If your main excuse is that you don’t have time for self-care, here are 5 self-care practices that take less than 1 minute:
- Drink warm lemon water first thing in the morning to support a gentle cleansing of your urinary tract, stimulate digestion and help lymph circulate.
- Take one full conscious breath when you need a pause in your day. You can also repeat the mantra: ‘Inhaling I breathe in, exhaling I breathe out.’
- When someone gives you a compliment or acknowledgment, take a moment to accept it fully by simply saying ‘thank you.’
- If someone asks you to do something you don’t want to do tell them no. Setting boundaries is a very powerful act of self-care. AND when you say no to that stuff time opens up for what’s really important to you.
- Pause and notice the qualities of your mind and body right now.
Growing self-awareness is the most powerful aspect of self care and you don’t need an hour of yoga per day to start cultivating it (although it does help). It’s the small actions you take on a consistent basis that generate the biggest results.
If your main excuse is not enough money, your missing the fact that health, in body and mind, IS wealth.
If you’ve ever been sick you know that it hinders your ability to be productive, and the quality of your life can go way down.
Research shows that 7 of the top 10 leading causes of death in the US are caused by lifestyle. That means they’re preventable through changes in diet and lifestyle (self-care). They include heart disease, COPD, stroke, diabetes, and even cancer.
Health is wealth.
To me there’s no other way to put it. You can invest money now on preventative self care versus more money later when your body breaks down prematurely.
One of my coaching clients was a high performing swim coach and teacher who was finding that she was having energy crashes and digestive distress that was negatively impacting her ability to do her job and connect with her athletes/students. She was resistant to investing in her self-care because she believed it was selfish, didn’t have time for it and wasn’t sure of the return on investment if she did it.
When her fatigue and feelings of being miserable got to be too much, she reached out to me. After just 30 days of working with me she declared that it was the best thing she’d EVER done for herself. She felt lighter, had sustained energy all day and no more digestive distress. She was thrilled to feel great and be able to lead, connect with and contribute to her athletes/students in a powerful way. Her return on her investment ended up being beyond what she could imagine.
Self-care is an act of empowerment. Take back your power to feel good and thrive in your body and mind. Invest in something that is meaningful for you and supports you in being the healthiest you can be in body and mind.
I help my coaching clients generate incredible results for themselves. If you’re ready to take on self-care as an act of empowerment, click here to learn about my one-on-one coaching options. If you book by Nov. 1st you get 2 bonus months of coaching free!
