The Making of Size HH: Part 6 ~ Self Care and You Time
There are thousands of health, fitness and lifestyle books out there, full of great ideas to make positive changes and maybe even help you lose excess weight. What I found many of them don’t do though, is show us how to actually make the time to implement the tips into your current lifestyle. Not just physical clock time, but time in your brain just for you…
Healthy recipes, home exercises and diet tips can be terrific for making healthier choices, but if you are not particularly used to doing things for you, then you may put the ideas aside for when you have more time, or when the kids are older. You may even feel like you have so much on your plate already that you couldn’t possibly start thinking about changing anything at the moment, but you would still like to feel good.
If this sounds like you, you are not alone. Some of us are so busy with jobs, kids and looking after our homes and others, that we just don’t take time for ourselves as often as we should. Some of us might even feel selfish for taking such time, or even thinking about it. Self care can be the difference between a happy woman and a worn out woman and it actually allows us to care for others better.
Mothers and carers especially are prone to constantly putting others needs before their own which is beautiful in some situations, but to live like this day in day out for years can leave you feeling seriously low, burnt out and overwhelmed.
I didn’t want Size HH to be just another healthy lifestyle book so I knew we needed a professional on-board to help our readers see how important self care is and how to implement more of it, without feeling guilty or selfish. Thanks to our Editor, I was introduced to Psychotherapist and counsellor, Jane Travis. After browsing through her website and articles, I knew we had found the right person and contacted her for a chat.
After some great discussions and emails, Jane helped me see where best to encourage more self care tips throughout the book and ways to fit them into a busy lifestyle. We tested and incorporated Jane’s practical tips into the book and I even took one of Jane’s courses for my own benefit!
Writing this post actually got me thinking about an article I read online recently about some worn out mums comparing themselves to well rested (child free) twenty somethings who quite obviously looked after themselves, or had others help look after them.
If you don’t want to look enviously at others because they seem to have more time or energy to do things some people take for granted like a shower alone or having your hair done, or even just a decent night’s sleep, you must make time for you. The busier you are, the more important it is to take some regular you-time, even if not for long.
Don’t always wait for someone to offer you any help or time off (not all of us have close family and friends able to help out or they may not know you need/want it) you must find a way to take time for yourself without feeling guilty or selfish. Jane shows us many ways to do this through her work, so well worth following her thought-provoking blog.
If you feel like you need more self care time in your life, why not check out Jane’s new 21 day self care challenge? It is packed with positive tips and daily activities to have a go at and comes with a friendly online support group – Self Care Café.
Jane will be sharing her own blog post with us here soon too, watch this space!
Wishing you all a fabulous weekend, don’t forget to do something for you too.
