Good self-care is the key to more health
and happiness. In this video, I'll share
what you can do to interrupt your
unhealthy patterns and elevate your
self-care. The problem that we're all
facing in our culture today in this
country especially, in the United States
and everywhere else that's pretty much
developed where people are working hard,
is that we're on this hamster wheel. And
we're taking care of others, especially
women. Taking care of children and
husbands and families and parent. We're
meeting deadlines, were working, were
rushing through life. And often
people-pleasing and saying yes when we
really mean no. And getting ourselves all
exhausted and frustrated and even
resentful. Well, the solution to this is
to have a really solid self-care
practice. There's a term that comes from
the Hebrew Bible that one of my mentors
uses. And it's "cup runneth over."
This idea that we can have such an
energy positive and energy rich way of
being that we have more than enough
energy to take care of ourselves and for
other people as well. So, great self-care
is about getting yourself to a place
where you're not depleting yourself but
rather that your cup runneth over. And if
that sounds impossible right now, I
totally get it. You know it's difficult
to be energy-rich when our nervous
system is all jacked up. So, there are
some things before I even get into
self-care that I want you to be thinking
about. Do you have all your notifications
turned on on your computer and on your
phone? Now, you might think that that's
not a really big deal. But actually, our
bodies are designed for this thing
called fight-or-flight. Which means that
when something changes in our
environment, our body is very attuned to
pick up that change. And so, number-one
thing to do is not just focus on what
can you do for self-care but what can
you let go of, what can you get rid of.
Can you turn off your notifications? Do
you really need to know every single
time you get an email? Consider that you
can maybe turn off some of these stimuli
and you can immediately start to see a
down regulation of your nervous system.
See we have something called the
sympathetic
nervous system. And that part of our
nervous system can get on high alert and
sometimes it can stay there. And if we
are constantly being bombarded with
stimuli then our sympathetic nervous
system might constantly be activated.
There are so many problems that happen
when we live with our sympathetic
nervous system activated on high alert.
We also have something called the
parasympathetic nervous system. That's
the part of our system that's for
relaxing and resting and regenerating. We
can activate the parasympathetic nervous
system through meditation, through breath.
But essentially, we want to think about
what brings you peace? What makes you
calm? These are all things that are going to
serve your self-care. So, even though
you're unique and everybody's a little
bit different, there are certain things
that are universal. The first of those
things is sleep. Getting good long enough
sleep really matters. Now, research has
shown that most of us need at least
seven hours of sleep. But I don't know
about you, but I was getting a lot less
sleep than not for a long time. There
were stretches of months at a time where
I would get five or six hours a night.
There's research that shows that that is
one of the worst things that you can do
for your body. It makes you gain weight,
it changes your mood, it has all sorts of
negative impact when you don't get
enough sleep. Here are some ideas for you
to get better sleep. Sleep in a dark room.
All those little lights... You know, from
your cell phone or from the fire alarm.
Cover them up if you can with black
electrical tape so that you have a
completely dark room. Black out shades
are also a really good idea. If you can't
do that, then consider getting a sleep
mask. Mine always comes off in the middle
the night but I just threw it back on in
the mornings. And that makes a big
difference in helping me sleep longer
and sleep better. The second thing is
food. What you put into your body matters.
Now, all of us are different. But you know
the difference between good food and bad
food. At the very least try to think
about what was food like before we
commercialized it, before we made food a
mass-produced item. Vegetables, right?
Fruits. Things that are the less processed
they are the better.
And consider that there might be certain
foods that we consider normal foods in
our culture that aren't actually foods
that our ancestors ate. You might find
that you're sensitive to certain foods
like wheat or dairy or meat. A third
component is your mindset. Sometimes we
think that our mindset is the result of
the circumstances that we're dealing
with. That in order to have a good
mindset, we have to be in the right job
and making the right money and in the
right relationships. And then once all
these conditions are met then we're
going to feel great. But actually, mindset is
what precedes all those things. And we
can manage our mindset by taking care to
have intention around, having belief
systems that support what we want to
create in the world.
So, mindset is a whole can of worms that
I'm not going to go deep into. But what I
highly recommend is considered getting a
coach, someone that can help you up level
and elevate your mindset. Another piece
another component of self-care is having
fun and playing and doing things that
bring you joy and laughter. Another piece
is getting outside and being in nature.
Playing outside in nature with the Sun
and the wind and the fresh air. You know,
we as humans, we were designed to be
outside. We were designed to be in nature.
And so, many of us including me, I used to
spend hours upon hours days upon days
sometimes without ever even going
outside. And then finally, there's love
and connection. Connecting with other
humans, touching other humans, hugging,
being around people in a social
environment. People who align with your
values, who appreciate you and who you
love. This is another piece of self care.
As human beings, we are hard-wired to
connect with other human beings.
What are your relationships look like?
Are they supporting your self-care or
are they hurting your self-care? One of
the absolute best things that you can do
for your self-care is to meditate. And I
only meditate 20-minutes every morning.
Now, for some of you that might sound
like a lot, but actually it goes by
really fast. Especially once you start to
understand how to do it. So, check out my
video how to start a meditation practice
for beginners.
