Day in and day out, you are using minutes and hours of every day to take care of coworkers, friends, family. What about you? When was the last time you took care of you? Do you have a significant other that takes care of you? Any family members that take care of you? Everyone deserves to be cared for, in any and all ways.
Care enough to choose
I have family members that recently chose to take care of themselves. Their parents can do only so much. They can love them. Be there for them, but they needed more. So, they chose. Chose to seek outside help from professionals. They also chose to get help by working on getting service animals. And it doesn’t stop there.
Their parents also chose. They chose to get help too. Their help is in a different form. One is looking deeper into their physical health and the other chose to work on their relationships by spending more time with family and friends.
Just not enough time in the day
So why am I talking about caring about myself? I have been working full time, going through online courses for my master’s degree, writing to you each week on my blog, all on top of taking care of my husband, my son, and my dogs (in which one got sick this past week.) One of my classes asked me to record my activities for 3-5 days straight each hour. I wake at 6am and go to sleep at 10pm. The entire time in between was focused on something or someone else. There was little to no “me time”.
Time for me
I would have to wake earlier or sleep later to add in any alone time for me. No time to exercise, read, write, and at times, breathe. Rare occasions came up that my son would be playing on the computer and my husband wouldn’t be home, so that I can focus on something I wanted to do. Then the question, what should I do with the 1 hour I have in front of me? I could nap, read, write some poetry, and maybe exercise. But I couldn’t do all of it. I had to choose one.
Don’t Give Up
Times like this can be hard. It is times like this that make me want to say, “I don’t want anything.” I could even go as far as say, “I give up.” Well, there were times when I did say those. For years I was like that. I stopped caring about me. I let my emotions play on the guilt I would give myself or receive from others, to drive my life.
Taking care of others is hard. So is taking care of yourself. In both cases, you have to push yourself to take the steps forward. You also have to be strong enough to know when to ask for help and not be afraid to do so.
One step forward…
Writing this blog has been a therapy session for me at times. A way to express my inner thoughts and feelings through my writing that I have not had the strength to do so before. But there is more I can do. First though, I need to start taking better care of me. This is one step. Sometimes, one step is enough and sometimes you need more. I want to take a few minutes (eventually) to look at ways I can take care of me. Like, maybe change my diet just slightly to add more fruit or veggies to my pizza lunch. Or maybe I can walk around the property I manage to add 15 minutes of exercise a few days a week. Then I can start looking at small ways to add in more. Eventually, I will start my self-care will be stronger, all the while, taking care of others.
Choose to care for you
Your family, your children, all those you love and cherish are important people in your life. But remember one fact. There is no one that is more important, than you. Without you, there are no loved ones, no family, no friends. Taking care of others should always include taking care of yourself.
With great warmth,
