The past few months have been tough for just about everyone. We have faced so much fear and change among the coronavirus pandemic. We have all had to go through major adjustments. The recent fight for racial justice has added even more emotionally charged energy to the environment. Many people are on edge. Many people are struggling.
I usually go with the flow rather easily but homeschooling my kids this Spring really threw me off my game. My entire business schedule and self-care routine went out the window to make room to teach my kids full time and try to keep us all sane while staying at home. School has been out for over a month now and I am still struggling to get back into a good routine. I have only been doing what I feel I have to and have neglected myself. This week, I am re-committing myself to a self-care routine. I do this as a kindness to myself and to those I serve, as I cannot be my best for them without taking proper care of myself.
This week I commit myself to the following:
1. A Healthy Sleep Schedule – Getting enough sleep can be tricky for me. I have always suffered from insomnia. I have found that the more I stress out about the hours of sleep I am getting, the less I get. So instead of trying to focus on the amount of time I will sleep each night, I will focus on improving my schedule. This week, I will go to bed at the same time each night. I will let myself wake naturally and will get up when I wake, rather than trying to force a few more minutes of sleep. Should I wake in the middle of the night, I will not lie in bed and stress out about it. I will get up and move to another room and practice self-Reiki and meditation for 15 to 30 minutes, then will try to go back to bed. I will avoid screens during naturally dark hours to improve my natural circadian rhythm.
2. Eating Healthy – I started the year determined to get into the habit of menu planning, preparing home-cooked meals, and trying new, healthy recipes. Then suddenly, I was a full-time teacher in addition to trying to run my business and household and I went straight back to winging it at mealtimes and relying mostly on convenience foods. After school broke for the summer, I continued this bad habit. It is time to get back to menu planning and nutritional meals. This week, I will plan out every meal and put more effort into making sure my family and I are eating good, nutritious foods.
3. More Exercise – I spend a lot of my day sitting. When I am not sitting at my computer working, I often find myself sitting with a book studying, or in front of the television. I have really been feeling this in the form of discomfort in my back and hips and tightness in my spine and limbs. This week, I commit to practicing yoga each day to loosen up my body. I will also take a walk each day. I hope my partner will join me in this.
4. A Gratitude Practice – I find gratitude to be the fastest way to improve my mood and raise my vibrations. I practice gratitude daily and it has probably kept me from slipping into a depression during these difficult times. However, I have been rather reactionary with my use of gratitude. I notice it in the moments that I am grateful for and I employ it as a way to raise my vibrations when I feel them slipping. I think I can do better for myself by developing a more formal gratitude practice. With a formal daily practice, I will better align myself with more things to be grateful for. This week I commit to making a list of what I am grateful for each evening and then taking the time to silently sit in gratitude.
5. Practicing Mindfulness – As a coping mechanism throughout the last few months, I have been engaging in distraction activities quite often. I have spent more time than I like to admit mindlessly watching television or playing Sims 3 on my PC. These types of activities are fine in moderation, but I feel I have let them take up too much of my time and it is causing me to feel ungrounded and out of touch with myself. This week, rather than distracting myself from life, I will be mindful of my physical world and all the beauty and wonder it contains. I will engage all of my senses daily and explore them with a beginner’s mind.
By recommitting myself to these self-care practices I will get back into a routine that supports better supports my physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. Things will come up in life that may interrupt our self-care. We need to be gentle and non-judgmental of ourselves when this happens. What is important is that when we recognize we are neglecting our self-care we take action to nurture ourselves again. What self-care practices can you re-commit to?