Self Care: A holistic practice
Today, I feel many of you can agree with me, it’s a true discipline/ near struggle to try and fit everything you need and want to do into your day. Depending on your work schedule, five of seven days have a period of time where for about eight to sometimes twelve hours are spent dedicated to one thing, work. Now irrespective of whether you love your job or not this is a considerable chunk of your greatest asset being used, your time.
More than any other skill now days being presented as something to get a hang of is time management. You can buy all the planners in the world you want, but without the fundamental skill of managing and planning your time, so much of what we need and want to do tends to get jumbled together, and when it gets jumbled together one of our most basic needs to be our best selves gets neglected. Our time for self care.
Creating space and time for ourselves to accomplish what we need is integral to our health, which is why time management is part of the holistic practice of self care. Once we get time management locked in, we can focus on what we define as self care. A loose definition being, an action or actions that creates an opportunity for our mind and body to recover in order for us to be rested so we can be present with ourselves in our future activities, thereby being our best selves and doing our best work.
Now I could say that I have discovered some sort of ten step process to discover how to master time management and what self care looks like, but the reality is those practices look different for everyone. However I can say there is an underlying thread that I think we can look at in order to create a frame work for you to determine what self care looks like for you by examining some simple things.
What do you value most for yourself, and what cultivates your happiness? Despite being broad concepts, I think if we all take a moment to reflect on those things, the beginnings of what we care most about tend to arise. For myself, I value my physical health, and my ability to be centered when I’m interacting with others and my hobbies. The next process I would then consider is, what actions lead to creating the best result of meeting those needs. If I am able to focus on keeping those things in line with my day to day life, I know from experience that I will consistently have better and better days, more productivity, and memorable experiences.
To refine things even further I would like to leave you with this thought. Sometimes trying to manage too many tasks in the day is like trying to juggle to many pins, however if you realize that the practice of moving your hands in accordance with the pins remains the same no matter how many pins you add, juggling becomes easier, it just takes more coordination. In life then, we focus on our root action of the day, to focus on what we want out of our day, once that is clear all the other things we need to take care of become much easier to manage, because we are clear in our intention, and a clear intention leads to more assertive and productive actions. Self care, is not doing all of the things at once, it is refining what we need at a fundamental level. Take a deep breath, and a moment to discover what brings you joy, and soon a healthy wholesome pattern of self care will emerge.
