The Reality of Self Care
Life can be hard no matter what but self care is really important for your mental health. Whether you are a stay at home mom or work a 9-5 like myself, your stressful days can seem endless. As we know, women seem to take on a whole village and rarely take time for ourselves. Look, women tend to take on more than we should, resulting in pure neglect of our mental and physical health.
With this being our reality, I have made a point to ensure I am conscious of how I treat myself. But the crazy thing is sometimes I don’t have a clue how stressed I am until my body tells me. Unfortunately, I have encountered loss of appetite, loss of hair, fatigue, and many other symptoms due to stress. I finally said enough is enough. My mental and physical health is and should be a priority!
My New Reality and Approach to Self Care
As you all may know at this point, I work in the auditing profession. It can be stressful to say the least. With that, I have found ways to alleviate the stress and make sure I’m able to identify when I need a break. With my 2017 diagnosis of anxiety and OCD, I now make a conscious effort to relax when I need to. For me, sometimes that means taking a mental health day from work and doing absolutely nothing sometimes.
In addition, I ensure that I meditate and do yoga as often as possible in order to stay centered. Most importantly, I have found that staying centered allows me to remain calm in really stressful/intense situations. Also, I noticed that I am able to think more clearly; my judgement isn’t cloudy. I had to figure out how to get to a place where I felt that I was caring for self.
Get Centered: What Changed in my Life?
How did I get to this point? Well, I became absolutely tired. First, I became tired of over thinking. Then, I became tired of feeling worn out. And all of this during my early to mid 30s!!! WTF!!! Clearly this should not be my life. Not only that, I realized I was not caring for myself.
So, I started the process by finding a good therapist. That was the hardest part. I was not ready to tell a stranger my business. Fortunately, one of my friends in the healthcare field explained the benefits of having a therapist. Then, I later found out a couple of my friends were seeing therapists for many different reasons. I started to see that having a therapist is normal and necessary.
Luckily, my job has really good health care coverage. I’m able to see a therapist and only pay a $10 co-pay with each visit. Unfortunately, not everyone has healthcare that covers mental health, or just don’t have insurance at all for whatever reasons. But, doing small things like meditating, journaling, and yoga can definitely help. My favorite apps I use for meditating, yoga, and breathing exercises have helped tremendously as well. Taking 1 hour, 30 or even 15 minutes a day to make time for yourself is important…self care.
Breathe: What’s important to you?
Ladies, we take on a lot. You must take care of self first. You can’t be the best mother, wife, entrepreneur, or employee if you don’t take care of yourself. Put your mental health and wellness first so that you can remain that fierce woman you are meant to be!
What are some of the things you all do to help alleviate stress?
*I am not a healthcare professional. These are my personal opinions and the things discussed in this post have worked for me. I cannot guarantee they will work for you.
