Sunday, July 26, 2009

Today’s Slice Self-Care

For me, self-care is one of the hardest slices to take on.  There just never seems enough time in a day to fit it all in.  But then again, it is a mindset.  I am the epitome of Mom.  Typically, that means everyone else first.  I have a lot of guilt when I take time just for me.  But again, that is a mindset that I need to work on.  I know how true it is that if Momma isnt happy, no one is happy. 

I heard a long time ago, and I teach this to others, that if you don't take care of yourself first, you cannot take care of others.  I need to learn to "schedule" this in for myself. 

Some of the things I try to do for self-care, are my writing, my garden, my friends and family.  Yesterday, I took time to go get a mani-pedi with my Mom.  It was great.  But doing that just for myself, I have a tendency to put it off.

But if you look up the definition for self-care it is health related.  Wikipedia gives the following definition.   

Self care is personal health maintenance. It is any activity of an individual, family or community, with the intention of improving or restoring health, or treating or preventing disease. Self care includes all health decisions people (as individuals or consumers) make for themselves and their families to get and stay physically and mentally fit. Self care is exercising to maintain physical fitness and good mental health.

WOW!  This is why I write.  Honestly, just because of my mindset, I never really think of the exercise and eating right as self-care. Don't know why but I was actually surprised to see such a reference to exercise and eating right.  In writing this, I realize I have typically thought of self-care as a "personal pampering" and have never looked at exercise or eating properly as a "pampering."

Next mindset to work on.  Exercise and good eating is a form of pampering myself.  I can actually tie that in with my overwhelming production from my garden.  I have spent a majority of the morning looking for recipes for all the squash I have.  I did find a great recipe site. 

This is exactly how the slice of life diet works.  You begin to see how if you look within and expand your focus, you will begin to see how things actually can balance.  My joy from my garden has prompted me to try new foods and explore the world of "fresh".  And today, after writing this post and really hearing the definition of self care, I can easily incorporate that into my joy from the garden…