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Connect and Grow Magzine - Edition 10 June- July 2024
In this edition, Natalia reminds us how important it is to replenish your body, mind, and soul with self-care.
Now is a great time to invest in every aspect of YOU!
As we move into the colder months in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s a natural time to focus inward and replenish our energy. However, any time is a good time to practise self-care and fill up our cup (metaphorically speaking).
In an ideal world, our energy ‘cup’ would be so full that its contents would spill onto the saucer below. Then, we’d easily have the resources and energy to draw on to face life’s challenges and help and care for others. More commonly, we give to others from the ‘cup’ itself, draining it away until we have nothing but the dregs to spend on ourselves. Or we give away the last of our energy resources and wonder why we feel so tired, resentful, or burnt out.
Cup overflowing
Don’t wait until your energy ‘cup’ is depleted before filling it up again. Find easy ways to practise self-care and replenish your physical, emotional, and mental energy needs and resources more often.
What is self-care?
Self-care is about caring for ourselves with activities and practices that improve our wellbeing and reduce our stress levels.
Self-care practices nurture our mind, body or emotional wellbeing, such as:
• Exercising and getting good quality sleep
• Eating well with good nutrition
• Practising mindfulness and calming activities
• Thinking more positively about ourselves
• Creating and maintaining healthy boundaries
• Giving thanks and appreciation
• Stimulating our creativity and learning new skills
• Fostering connections and good relationships with others
What doesn’t count as self-care?
The tricky thing about self-care is that there isn’t a perfect ‘one-size fits all’ approach. It’s based on your own personal preferences and circumstances. For instance, watching your favourite TV show can count as self-care. However, if you’re binge-watching for long periods or mindlessly watching whatever happens to be on, it’s not really self-care.
An activity isn’t self-care if:
• you feel worse afterwards
• you numb out or feel cut off from yourself or your feelings
• it encourages addictive or unhealthy behaviours.
How do you know if something counts as self-care for you?
It’s helpful to reflect on what self-care means to us individually and to create our own personalised list of self-care ideas by reflecting on what:
• makes us feel happy and satisfied?
• energises and strengthens us.
• feels nourishing and replenishing.
• provides us with support and a sense of wellbeing?
Explore and test different activities until you find what works best. Some self-care strategies are better suited to our mood, situation, and timing. Your preferences may also change over time. Remember to seek the advice of a qualified healthcare professional relevant to your own health and circumstances.
Download my Feel Better printable here to capture your self-care ideas. Then, you have a list to quickly refer to when you want to replenish your energy ‘cup’.
Hopefully, you can find small, easy ways to incorporate nourishing self-care activities into your day. Consequently, you’ll have more energy and motivation, feel happier, and be able to care for and support others from a fuller energy ‘cup’.
Written by Natalia Walker
Natalia is available for consultations.
Email: natalia@innercreative.com.au
(C) 2024 Break Free Consultancy, Connect and Grow
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