Whatever you do there after that is a bonus until you bump your goal up to going to the gym and getting on the treadmill for five minutes. Keep bumping it up after you’ve successfully accomplished that goal for a week or two. Give yourself wins like that whenever you can and you’ll be able to climb the mountain in no time.
Be gentle—with your body and your mind.
An important part of self-care is remembering to be kind and gentle with yourself. It’s okay when you’re not perfect. That may sound shocking, but it’s true. You don’t have to do everything on your to-do list every day. In fact, you probably have too many things on there anyway. But you do need to take care of yourself. Otherwise, the time will pass and your health can decline. You’ll have those aches and pains we don’t want when we get older. You may even get sick more easily. So let some things slide and remember how important it is to tend to your health every day.
Maybe you didn’t get your walk in by the end of the day. Should you be mad at yourself? No. But you should make an extra commitment to get it in tomorrow. Do you need to do double the work because you missed a day? Nope. Don’t stress yourself out. Just get back up and try again the next day. But work hard toward keeping those promises to yourself. The more you realize you can trust yourself to do the things you need to do for your health, the better you’ll feel. So if you promise yourself a walk, do it. And keep doing it. Not only will you feel more accomplished and healthy, but you’ll feel more like you can rely on yourself. Those feelings will go a long way for you.
Remember: It’s a practice.
Self-care isn’t something that comes naturally to a lot of us. So don’t forget as you embark on your new self-care journey: It’s something that becomes more natural with practice. It may feel awkward and weird at first. And you may forget the next day if you don’t actively plan it out on your to-do list. But keep going with it. Try new things each week to see what ways you prefer to wind down and take care of your body and your mind. Make notes about what really works and what doesn’t. Then keep refining that list so you have a solid catalog of preferred self-care methods to go to whenever you need a little pick-me-up.
Just take care of yourself. I want readers and writers to continue to do what they love for as long as they can. So I encourage you to practice more self-care and remember that it isn’t selfish—it’s absolutely necessary. Enjoy!
Shine bright and choose love.