There’s a lot of buzz around the term ‘self-care’ – which I take to mean looking after my mind, body and spirit. For me, it put a name to a practice that I never realised I had been doing my whole life. I think it’s great that we’re having more open discussions about looking after ourselves but, I find we rarely look at the unbeautiful side of self-care. I’m talking about the moments when you push yourself through a tough workout or have the strength to end a toxic friendship. In recent years, I’ve gotten to know myself really well so I can spot when I need to re-balance.
Here’s how I look after my mind, body and spirit:
Mind: I have anxiety so it’s really important for me to have balance in my life. The one thing that’s helped me the most has been journalling. I regularly check-in with myself and think about things that are going really well for me and things I want to work on. From there, I’ll take action to build new habits I want to form and keep track of how I’m doing. I’ve also been lucky enough to find a career that allows me to have more balance in my life. Being a Project Manager lets me channel my Type A energy into my work. It allows me to have a more calm and laid back personal life and this as a key part of my self-care routine.
Body: I want to live a long happy life, surrounded by family and making lots of happy memories with my loved ones. I need to look after my body to have the best chance of living a long life so I consciously look after it. Recently, I went through a period of having really low energy – I felt lethargic and I really wanted to get back to feeling light on my feet. I realised that I hadn’t really been paying much mind to my diet – I was just eating whatever, whenever and definitely not having enough fruit and veg. In this situation, self-care for me was tracking my nutrition and adjusting my diet to make sure I’m nourishing my body with the fibre, protein and carbs it needs to keep ticking along smoothly. I’ve also recently started training virtually with my fantastic Personal Trainer @dr.erereikogho (go follow her on Instagram – she knows her stuff!) and I’ve already noticed positive changes in my energy levels and I’m getting fitter each day.
Spirit: For me, this is about learning about the world around me and how I fit into it. I spend a lot of time reading and being inspired by the arts to nourish my soul. Here self-care is spending a Sunday afternoon wandering around a museum or taking a walk and really appreciating the beauty of this wonderful city I get to call my home. I’ve also recently fallen in love with theatre – I’ll take myself to a show after work and hear a new story and get to see the world from someone else’s perspective. I can’t describe the feeling I get when I watch a story told in front of me – I feel like my soul is smiling – I’m being super dramatic here but it really is something. If you’re new to the theatre scene in London then definitely follow @ the.rendition – this page has led me to see some fantastic things.
So that’s how I look after myself, let me know how you look after yourself in the comments and have a great week!
Teru xx