Picture this.
It’s Monday morning, you got a full 8 hours of sleep last night, and nothing is overwhelming you. How do you feel? You probably feel like you could conquer the world with a baby on your hip!
Now, imagine you only got 4 hours of sleep, you immediately start becoming overwhelmed by everything you wanted to get done this past weekend but never got around to. How do you feel? Probably not as great as you did in the first scenario, right?
As women, we are programmed from birth to put everyone else first and always ourselves last. Growing up everyone tells you it’s rude to be selfish and a poor characteristic to have. But is it really? I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “you can’t pour from an empty cup”, and that is absolutely the truth. Self care isn’t selfish at all, it’s all about putting yourself and your needs first so you can give everyone and everything else all you’ve got as well. Loving yourself unconditionally and always acknowledging your feelings is a must for your own mental health. Self care is the actions you take towards self love (i.e. getting your nails done, telling people no, cleaning your area).
Maybe you never practice self love and have no idea where to start. That’s okay, but make it a goal to do at least one act of self love every day. At first, making time for yourself each day can be tedious but self love isn’t all pedicures and flowers. Check out the graphic below that we made for our Facebook group. There are 29 self care activities to promote self love in your life. You’ll notice that you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars to indulge in yourself, but instead it can practice through journaling, crafting, and even sleeping!
Once you get in the hang of putting yourself first, you’ll wonder how you ever lived any other way! Challenge yourself for the next 29 days to follow the challenge posted above and see how much better you feel.
Practicing self love will drastically help improve your mental health. So many of us women struggle because we make time for everyone… except ourselves! By allowing yourself to tell people no, getting an extra 30 minutes of sleep, or just moving your body, you will see a shift in your health and perspective. Self care is absolutely worth all the hype it’s had in the recent years.
xo,
Mickeeley