Day 46 – One More Day…

Another Saturday night and I’m finishing up reports, working on formatting books, and trying to come up with a meaningful blog about self-care. After 46 days of doing these posts, I’m getting to the end of my list of things to post about. As I said when I started this thing, self-care has never been my strong point. I’m usually too busy taking care of things for other people to stop and do things for myself. And not in a selfless and praise-worthy kind of way; but just as part of my usual daily duties as a mom, a boss, an employee, and whatever other roles I’ve taken on in this life. In the course of doing the things that have to be done, my list rarely includes doing things that contribute to keeping myself healthy. Other than the thirty minutes I spend at the gym four or five times a week, I generally don’t do much for me. Granted, the gym time is much more than I used to do, but it still is nowhere near enough. So, knowing this, what can I do to spend more time working on me? Other than the stolen moments in my car, listening to my favorite books or the few minutes here and there when I allow myself to listen to music I enjoy; what can I do to effectively block out time for activities that will contribute to more positive mental and physical health?

I think the first thing I need to do is to recognize that I am important enough to deserve the extra effort it takes to take good care of me. Everything should not feel like work. Everything should not feel like an impossible task. The time I need to take to make sure that I’m happy, healthy, and whole should feel absolutely natural. I think that once I get to a place where I can do these things with little to no effort, I will have reached the place where I am finally a priority.

47 Days of Self-Care is a blogging project that is being published between three different blogs owned by Author & Publisher, Rebecca Benston. Over these 47 days, she hopes to share thoughts and resources for better self-care. You can view related posts at Higher Ground for Life, at the Leading the Follower blog, and on the Higher Ground Books & Media blog.