How often do you find yourself driving home from work dreading the fact that you still need to make dinner, do the dishes, and/or fold pile(s) of laundry?
You feel drained - and it's having a negative effect on your ability to be a good spouse/significant other, parent, and friend. It's even causing you to snap at those you love most because you just don't want to answer yet one more question or explain something yet one more time.
Enter the guilt...
What you want more than anything is to find a way to feel better - so that you can be the person you want to be.
Guess what? There's an easy answer. What you need most is to start taking better care of yourself.
Why Self-Care Isn't About Indulging or Treating Oneself
There was once a time (not all that long ago) when the topic of self-care would make my eyes roll. Anytime the subject came up, I'd imagine a woman eating bonbons at the spa every weekend while leaving her crying kids behind. It sounded self-indulgent.
This image wasn't helped by the number of women who constantly talked of needing to "treat themselves" as part of their self-care. But then I discovered that these women had no idea what self-care really means.
Self-care has nothing to do with treating or indulging yourself - or even doing something just because it feels good in the moment. Instead, self-care is about doing what's necessary to be your best so that you can serve those you love - and even the rest of the world - in the best way possible.
Now that I can get behind.
Why do I bring this up? Because every single client that comes to me has a huge self-care problem. Even if they don't realize it. Not only that, most professionals and business owners that I talk to don't take good care of themselves either.
Why You're Not Prioritizing Self-Care (Even Though You Know You Should)
So, why do so many people take such poor care of themselves? For starters, most tell me that they don't have time and that they feel that taking time for themselves is selfish or indulgent.
But I believe it's even worse than that. After all, our society talks a lot about self-care these days. The biggest reason most people (including you) don't take good care of themselves is because they treat it as just another to-do list item. And as such it gets pushed down the list - to the point where it never gets done.
This is where much of the guilt comes from. Because it's not treated as a priority. Ever.
When you treat self-care as just another to-do list item, you're bound to feel guilty when you feel like it's coming in front of things like: - doing something with your kids/significant other
- finishing a work project
- getting a necessary chore at home done
And so, outside of maybe some irregular exercise and trying to eat in a healthy manner, you don't take care of yourself. The only reason you even get that done is because you're told you "have to" if you want to live longer (and yet you're still not doing it as much as you'd like or believe you should be).
What you're doing isn't enough. And you know it too...
How to Start Prioritizing Self-Care
Get self-care off your to-do list. It comes BEFORE your list ever comes into play. Instead of thinking it as something you're supposed to do, think of it as a natural extension of who you are.
If you want to be your best, do your best, and give the most that you can, then you must take care of yourself. It's time to admit that taking care of YOU will help you to:
- be more focused when at work and therefore more productive
- be more present and attentive when with family and friends
- have the energy to get what's needed done without snapping or being rude to those you love
- be the best spouse/significant other, parent, employee, and person you can possibly be
The simple fact is that you cannot be your best if you're not taking care of yourself and you cannot give to others without first taking care of you.
And don't be fooled: prioritizing self-care
doesn't mean that you're doing it at the expense of something else.
It's not an either/or thing.
Why I Bring This Up (Again) - Also Known as "I Have a Gift for You"
I know that I've talked about self-care in various ways this past month. But it's not possible to over-emphasize it. Because, as mentioned above, it's one of the biggest issues people come to me to help them with. And I know it's something you need help with too.
That's exactly why I created a the Essential Self-Care Toolkit: How to Take Simple + Guilt-Free Care of Yourself to Quickly Go From Feeling Stressed-Out and Exhausted to Relaxed and Rejuvenated.
This Toolkit will help you to: - Determine exactly where to focus first to help you FEEL BETTER NOW
- Uncover what works best (and what doesn't) to help you relax and rejuvenate so that you can STOP WASTING TIME on stuff that doesn't work
- Learn 50 quick + easy ways to take care of yourself - body, mind, and soul
- Create the perfect morning and evening routines (that can be done in as little as 10 minutes) to help you feel great, reduce (and even prevent) stress, and feel motivated and relaxed
The Toolkit is a great place to start if you want to start taking impeccable care of yourself without feeling guilty or selfish about it - and without taking up much time too. Because self-care can be added to your life easily and doesn't need to take up much time.
XO, | 
