You're Not a Sucker Believing in Self Care

Hello Beautiful people!! I know that many of you have heard of the term "self care" we hear it on health and wellness segments on television, read about it in magazines or through social media or if you are fortunate enough, practice self care as part of your life routine. Defined by dictionary.com, self care is "care of self without medical or other professional consultation". I define it as doing something/anything that feeds your soul and amplifies your bliss away from the work we do in the day to day. It took me a very long time, well into my adulthood to understand the importance of self care. I work 5 days a week, sometimes a Saturday due to a school related event. I am a parent to a tween daughter and adult son who is special needs. When I am at home, I cook/clean the house then would work on office related tasks on my computer until bedtime (which would be anytime between 11pm & 1am). I even found myself "working" on the weekends, food shopping, cleaning etc..I never realized that in all of the activities I was engaged in, none of it was self care; I maintained the house but not myself. Sure I would go on vacations, but would take my laptop with me and work, check on emails or set up conference calls while on sitting by the pool or at the beach..not much of a vacation.

I did not realize the impact until both my physical and mental health began to suffer. I was dealing with headaches (I am always in power thinking mode made worse by having poor sleeping habits) I did not pay attention to my diet, this led to weight gain. Mentally, I felt somewhat depressed, I was doing what was expected as a mother and supervisor, doing what I am supposed to do, not doing what I wanted to do away from the conditioned grind of life. I was moving in slow motion and not feeling satisfied. At the prompting of a very good friend, I decided to take a dance class (I am a former dancer) at the Alvin Ailey extension on a Saturday-a total shift of my weekend routine. I enjoyed the class, met new people, that I share a passion for dance with, more importantly, I felt invigorated, alive and happy. Taking that dance class motivated me to do other things that i've always wanted to do-write poetry, attend the theatre, have friends over for dinner, spend quality time with my significant other, exploring the city (NYC) and a recent hobby, painting (as showcased in this week's blog photo!). It took a nudge from a friend to get my self care mojo on; as I share this blog with all of you, I hope that I inspire or nudge you into adopting self care into your routine, time should be no excuse, MAKE THE TIME!! your spiritual, emotional health is just as important as the physical....TRUST!