Making time to look after yourself and prioritize your needs is one of the toughest problems busy, high-achieving women face.
When life gets overwhelming and stress levels rise, it is so tantalizing to clear out your calendar by taking off the things that you do for yourself. On the surface, it can look like the simplest, fastest, lowest conflict path to making more time, energy, and getting the "critical stuff" dealt with. The issue is that it's not.
When you're living a life where getting things done and taking care of multiple responsibilities is vital, this implies you are critical. When your presence is important, when other people need and depend on you, it's more significant than ever that you be fueled, prepared, and capable of giving your best. If you are not practicing great self-care and making your wishes a concern, you are more than likely to turn up in the world depleted, tired, and less creative, less targeted, less vibrant, less YOU than the world you live in (and you) deserve.
Here's the thing. Great self-care doesn't have to take over your life (nonetheless it does have the power to significantly change it).
Here are 3 me-time hacks. Consider this a quick and soiled cheat sheet for slinking in great (and easy) self-care.
1. Never belittle the power of 3 minutes. I am a high- achiever too so I'll say this. As sizeable thinkers and ambitious people, we may have a tendency to make things more complex than they have to be. Many of my private coaching clients bring a long (discouraging) list they "should" be doing for themselves to our first session. The problem is, the list is so overwhelming it can feel very unlikely to even begin.
Repeat after me: "Small consistent steps can work miracles."
3 minutes, focused only on you connecting with yourself, discovering what you are feeling or requiring, relaxing your body or untangling your mind can change the onward course of the rest of your day. A coaching client told me this week that an easy 3 minute practice that we made for her has left her feeling more focused and active and feeling less stress. It is also reducing her urges to binge and eat mindlessly. She's astonished by the results and when I asked her if she'll keep practicing the strategy she told me it is a no brainer. Because it's easy, she has already made it a habit. How can you make 3 minutes a day pay off for you?
2. Pay yourself first. I used to fall off the self-care truck all of the time. It happened because I was falling for the assumption that my job was to get everything else done before I targeted on me. Guess what? By the point I had time (if I did) to work out or meditate or plan a great hike with buddies, I was too tired to follow through. If I did follow through, I was often not ready to actually enjoy and savor the experience in a way that could leave me recharged. Instead , it just wore me out.
I've since learned how to flip this philosophy the other way up, with amazing results. The truth is, when I pay myself first - when I put my workout at the top of the list, when I bother at the start of my week to plan my meals or plan some good down time in my week? I not only feel better all week, I perform better. I'm more targeted and creative. I feel more alive and I have more to give. My clients notice this too. When they drop the assumption that they are too busy for themselves and start putting their self-care first, they really get more done.
3. Make self-care an appointment and make it a standing date. Think about it. If something is tricky to do, why make yourself "reinvent the wheel" and start afresh with doing it each time? When you can, it is smart to make self-care a ritual.
A client who was continually traveling for her company struggled with emotional overeating when she was on the road. She strove with the easy way to take good care of herself and make delicious food and portion selections in every new hotel and new city she visited. One straightforward step we took to reduce her stress and to help her take charge of emotional eating was to design rituals that helped ground her and that she could use to chill, plan her eating selections, and limit stress eating. The key was to systematize things so she had a ritual she was used to completing at set times of the day and that might kick in even when she is away from home.
Self-care doesn't need to be complex and it doesn't need to be overpowering, nonetheless it does need to happen.
What tiny simple change can you make to take better care of yourself?
When life gets overwhelming and stress levels rise, it is so tantalizing to clear out your calendar by taking off the things that you do for yourself. On the surface, it can look like the simplest, fastest, lowest conflict path to making more time, energy, and getting the "critical stuff" dealt with. The issue is that it's not.
When you're living a life where getting things done and taking care of multiple responsibilities is vital, this implies you are critical. When your presence is important, when other people need and depend on you, it's more significant than ever that you be fueled, prepared, and capable of giving your best. If you are not practicing great self-care and making your wishes a concern, you are more than likely to turn up in the world depleted, tired, and less creative, less targeted, less vibrant, less YOU than the world you live in (and you) deserve.
Here's the thing. Great self-care doesn't have to take over your life (nonetheless it does have the power to significantly change it).
Here are 3 me-time hacks. Consider this a quick and soiled cheat sheet for slinking in great (and easy) self-care.
1. Never belittle the power of 3 minutes. I am a high- achiever too so I'll say this. As sizeable thinkers and ambitious people, we may have a tendency to make things more complex than they have to be. Many of my private coaching clients bring a long (discouraging) list they "should" be doing for themselves to our first session. The problem is, the list is so overwhelming it can feel very unlikely to even begin.
Repeat after me: "Small consistent steps can work miracles."
3 minutes, focused only on you connecting with yourself, discovering what you are feeling or requiring, relaxing your body or untangling your mind can change the onward course of the rest of your day. A coaching client told me this week that an easy 3 minute practice that we made for her has left her feeling more focused and active and feeling less stress. It is also reducing her urges to binge and eat mindlessly. She's astonished by the results and when I asked her if she'll keep practicing the strategy she told me it is a no brainer. Because it's easy, she has already made it a habit. How can you make 3 minutes a day pay off for you?
2. Pay yourself first. I used to fall off the self-care truck all of the time. It happened because I was falling for the assumption that my job was to get everything else done before I targeted on me. Guess what? By the point I had time (if I did) to work out or meditate or plan a great hike with buddies, I was too tired to follow through. If I did follow through, I was often not ready to actually enjoy and savor the experience in a way that could leave me recharged. Instead , it just wore me out.
I've since learned how to flip this philosophy the other way up, with amazing results. The truth is, when I pay myself first - when I put my workout at the top of the list, when I bother at the start of my week to plan my meals or plan some good down time in my week? I not only feel better all week, I perform better. I'm more targeted and creative. I feel more alive and I have more to give. My clients notice this too. When they drop the assumption that they are too busy for themselves and start putting their self-care first, they really get more done.
3. Make self-care an appointment and make it a standing date. Think about it. If something is tricky to do, why make yourself "reinvent the wheel" and start afresh with doing it each time? When you can, it is smart to make self-care a ritual.
A client who was continually traveling for her company struggled with emotional overeating when she was on the road. She strove with the easy way to take good care of herself and make delicious food and portion selections in every new hotel and new city she visited. One straightforward step we took to reduce her stress and to help her take charge of emotional eating was to design rituals that helped ground her and that she could use to chill, plan her eating selections, and limit stress eating. The key was to systematize things so she had a ritual she was used to completing at set times of the day and that might kick in even when she is away from home.
Self-care doesn't need to be complex and it doesn't need to be overpowering, nonetheless it does need to happen.
What tiny simple change can you make to take better care of yourself?
About the Author:
1. Melissa McCreery is focused on helping busy overworked women practice powerful self care without overeating. Visit her site to get her free audio and find out what you might do differently next time you're faced with emotional overeating.
