In this video, I'm going to share 7 things
that you can do to take care of your
body mind heart and soul so you can live
a more joyful life.
So, the problem that we're all facing in
this day and age is that life is
stressful. We've got a ton of different
things that are competing for our
attention.
We've got phones buzzing, people emailing.
Deadlines looming. All these different
things that keep our nervous system
jacked up. See, our nervous system is
designed for a much simpler era. A time
when we were outside in the jungle or on
the savanna. And our nervous system had
to be attuned to any change in our
environment to help us run or fight or
flight or freeze in order to survive. But
in this day and age, we're mostly, mostly
safe in our apartments and in our houses
and in our cars. But our nervous system
is still responding like it was 10,000
years ago. And so, the solution
is to practice self-care and self-love.
So, a note about self-care. And this is
maybe a little bit funny for some of you
but I'll share that I didn't really
understand what it was either. When I
first started to do this work,
I thought self-care was the same as
getting my nails done and manis and
pedis and massages. Wait, yes. Massages are
self-care.
In other words, self-care is not
necessarily the same as grooming. If you
think about it from this perspective,
grooming is often something we do for
others. It's something to do that we
often do so that we look good in the
world. But self-care is not what you do
for others. It's what you do for yourself.
It's what you do so that you can feel
good. So, that you can calm down. So, that
your nervous system can relax. It's what
you do so you can go inward and go
deeper. It's what you do so you can feel
your true self come alive. Self-care is
what you do to create boundaries and
standards to take care of yourself. And
make sure that you are honoring yourself
and that other people are honoring you
the way that you want to be honored.
So, self-care may have hundreds of things.
And a lot of it comes down to what works
for you, what do you need? The first core
elements of self-care are the
physiological elements. This is the
that we take care of our body and make
sure that we have lifeforce energy.
There's also a whole another component of
self-care. Part of the self-love piece
which is more about mindset and heart
and soul. So, first, I'll take you
through the seven key steps of
physiological self-care. The first is
sleep. When we don't get good sleep,
research shows that almost immediately
we start to suffer the effects next day.
If you've ever not slept for a night or
pulled an all-nighter or partied all
night like I used to and then the next
day only got in 2 or 3 hours of
sleep, you know what I'm talking about.
Sleep is fundamental. And just as
important to sleep is our food and water.
It's what we're putting into our bodies
through our mouths. Are you eating
healthy food are you drinking good water?
Now, water quality is something we don't
hear a whole lot about in our culture
right now. But the fact is in the United
States today a lot of the water that
we're drinking that comes out through
the tap isn't really fit for human
consumption.
Go do your homework and find out that
the United States is one of the last
countries developed countries on this
planet that continues to fluoridate and
chlorinate the water. Now, you can clean
out the water, you can filter it out. You
can get the fluoride and chloride out,
chlorine out. But the problem is then
it's also you've taken out all the
minerals and all the things that make
water so good for us. So, do a little
homework on water and understand how
important it is to get good quality
water.
I personally I'm going to share a secret.
I in my car right now I have 3 huge
empty containers to go fill up with
water at a local spring. Yes, spring water.
Free. From the ground from deep in the
earth. That's the best kind of water. The
third thing is oxygenation. It's breath.
It's not just the quality of oxygen but
just the fact that you slow down and
breathe. Meditation is one of the
greatest ways that you can get more
oxygen into your body that you can slow
your breath down and bring online your
parasympathetic nervous system. Yoga is
also a really great technique for that.
And related to that I just mentioned it,
is meditation, number 4. So, focusing on
slowing down your thoughts and being
able to calm down your nervous system
every single day is a fantastic way to
practice self-care. It doesn't even need
to take very much time. Even if you only
have 5 minutes to just slow down,
breathe and relax. That's a start. The
fifth thing for your physiological
self-care is to move your body, to get up
and to move energy through running or
jumping or even swimming or even
stretching just moving your body. And
remembering that as humans, we were
designed to move. The sixth thing also
belongs in the category that I'm going
to talk about next are psychological
self-care. Your mindset and your
heart. But it's also related to our
physiology too. Humans need to be with
other humans. We need to be have love and
connection in our lives and in a
physiological way. So, touching humans and
hugging people and and being connected
to other humans is a really important
element of self-care as well. And then
finally, nature. The Sun, the fresh air,
getting outside and having your feet in
the ground. There's actually research
that shows that when we take our shoes
off and step on the grass, we connect
more to the earth and we send
electromagnetic signals that we get from
all these crazy places like our cell
phones. And we can actually discharge all
that into the earth. So, being in nature
and the Sun and fresh air. Also Sun helps
us get Vitamin D which is one of these
things that protects us against cancer
and all sorts of other diseases. So, those
are the elements of self-care that are
physiological. Now, I want to talk about
some of the elements of self-care that
are more psychological. So, the first is
this this idea of self-love, of really
honoring ourselves. And one of the ways
that we can do that is by forgiving
ourselves and being kind to ourselves. I
can't tell you how many times I've
witnessed friends and clients and even
my mom beat themselves up and say things
like, "Oh, I'm so stupid or I'm such an
idiot or I've got ATD." Or any number of
negative things about ourselves. First
thing we want to do in order to love
ourselves more and take better care of
selves is to be kind to ourselves, to be
compassionate, to forgive ourselves, to be
loving. And ask would you would
you say this to someone else? Sometimes
we find that we're even meaner to
ourselves than we are to others. So,
that's one piece. Forgiveness, compassion
and kindness for ourselves. Another
really important thing to have are
boundaries, right? A lot of women
especially, but not only can get caught
up in people-pleasing and saying yes
when we really mean no. That can really
compromise our self-care on a
physiological level. For example, if we're
supposed to work out and then somebody
asks us to do something. And we say, "Oh,
okay. I'll do that." And then we don't do
our work out. That's one way. But also
just energetically when we say yes, when
we mean no we start to sell ourselves
out. And little by little that can erode
our self-esteem and our confidence. So,
really having clarity on "What are my
standards? What's okay? What's not okay?
What are my boundaries?" And I have a
mentor who talks a lot about this, NaniLea Diamond. Like what are the
agreements that need to be made? What are
the agreements that may need to be
formed or changed in order to honor your
self-care? Your self-love? Your boundaries?
The last thing I want you to consider is
to put yourself first. Now, I know that
that might seem like it's a selfish
thing to do.
That we are told that we need to
sacrifice ourselves and give and love
others and all of that good stuff. And I
get it. Those are all fantastic things to
do. I live in service but that is my life
that is my job. And I take care of my
needs first. It's like that old metaphor
of the airplane, right? Where they say
when your oxygen mask drops down, put it
on your ownself first before you go and
help others. Even children. Now, for some
of us that might seem a little crazy.
Like, "Oh, wouldn't I want to take care of
the children first?" Well, the children
need you, right? The people need
you to be strong, to be physiologically
healthy. And so, when we take care of our
own needs first, then we can have way
more available for others. There's an old
passage from the Hebrew Bible that talks
about your cup runneth over. And this is
a
great way to describe what self-care is
all about. Self cares about filling up
your cup so that you have enough energy
and love to give to others. One of the
best things that I ever did for myself
care was start meditating. So, if you are
curious about starting a meditation
practice at home and you're a beginner,
check out my video how to start a
meditation practice for beginners.
