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Prioritising You – Why You Need To Focus On Self-Care

//Prioritising You – Why You Need To Focus On Self-Care

Prioritising You – Why You Need To Focus On Self-Care

There are so many demands on us modern gals, especially if you are a mother too. Between the house, the kids, the partner, work, pets, cooking, cleaning, taxi-ing, school drop off, washing, grocery shopping and running errands, there isn’t much time for anything else. Normally you have just enough energy to flop onto the couch and maybe lift the TV remote at the end of the day.

Let’s face it, you are pretty far down the priority list. But how can you expect to continue at this frenzied pace if you don’t take the time to prioritise you – it is incredibly hard to pour from an empty cup. I want you to take a minute and think about the last thing you did that was just for you. Can’t remember when that was? Then you need to prioritise some self-care for yourself.

How To Focus On Self-Care

Your health and wellbeing is just as important as that of your family. Don’t feel guilty about taking a little bit of time for you. In the long run, everyone will benefit because you will be happier, healthier and full of more energy. So here are my top tips for how to focus on self-care…

Take Time To Breathe

Taking a small amount of time to watch the world go by will do you so much good. Grab a herbal tea and sit in the sunshine after dropping the kids off, focus on your breathing for several minutes, do a short yoga session, or even a meditation if you are feeling it. This little time out will really help to calm and destress you. By doing diaphragmatic breathing (breathing deep down into your diaphragm at a slower pace rather than shallow breathing quickly into your chest) is an important first step in managing the symptoms of anxiety, anger, panic, etc.

Sleep

I don’t mean the kind of sleep where you fall into your bed fully clothed because you are so exhausted. Or the kind where you feel your eyes closing as you try to play on the floor with your kids. But the kind of sleep that gives you real rest. Try to set yourself a reasonable bedtime so that you get enough shut eye. Sleep deprivation is really unhealthy. It plays havoc with your mind and doesn’t give your body the chance to recover from the day before. Try to aim for 7-8 hours of sleep a night and to be in bed by 10.30pm each evening.

Eat Right

It can be so easy to eat little Timmy’s rejected crusts for breakfast, or to grab the closest packet in the pantry for lunch. But these kinds of meals don’t nourish your body in the way it needs. Instead, you should be choosing foods that keep you satisfied for longer and give you the energy to tackle everything you have to do in a day. It can be hard to know what these foods are, so stay tuned to the bottom of this post for a hard to resist offer!

Journal or Fill in a Gratitude Diary

It’s so easy to forget to appreciate the little things that happen during the day and head off to sleep thinking about what didn’t work. By filling in a gratitude journal (I do it at night but you could do it in the morning too) or by simply journaling what has happened during the day leaves you feeling appreciative and abundant – and makes you focus on the good things! My favourite gratitude journal is from the team over at Awesome.Inc. (Photo by Simon Maage on Unsplash)

Drink More Water

Even mild dehydration can affect your brain and body function. It can make you feel sluggish, give you muscle cramps, affect your memory, lower your blood pressure, give you a headache or make you feel dizzy. Make sure you keep your fluids up throughout the day, especially if it is hot or you are particularly active. Grab a drink the second you feel thirsty as you are already starting to dehydrate by then. Water is the best option and try to avoid things like juice or soda. I find the easiest way is to have a water bottle with me at all times.

Exercise

We all know that we should be exercising. But we are full of excuses. I can’t fit it into my day, I can’t do it with the kids, I don’t know what exercises I should be doing, it’s too hot, it’s too cold… the list goes on. Basically, by not exercising you are not treating your body with respect. I am not saying that you need to run 5km a day, but taking the opportunity to get active when you can will improve your health and wellbeing.

The Wicked Healthy Tribe

Prioritising you is not about completely changing everything you do. It is about modifying your current habits and making better choices. If you want to learn about making better choices and how to focus on yourself with self-care, then the Wicked Healthy Tribe could be just the thing you need.

Healthy food and fitness

It’s a 6 week programme designed to help you create some awesome daily habits around healthy eating and getting active. The programme is full of delicious recipes, videos, easy exercises and handy tips galore. There are no hard and fast rules because who has time for that? But there is lots of support from like-minded ladies and the permission to prioritise you for a change. Find out more about the Wicked Healthy Tribe.

The lead image of this blog is courtesy of Rock My Stock – Styled Stock Photos for Female Entrepreneurs

By | 2018-02-07T14:30:15+13:00 February 7th, 2018|The Weekly Wick|0 Comments

About the Author:

I'm a mother of 3 who's passionate about empowering and inspiring you that healthy food can taste amazing, and it's not hard to create.

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