Self-care is a deeper topic than the two little words lead us to believe. It involves uncovering hidden beliefs, unconscious behaviors and choices against ourselves, and finding easy, personal ways to feel good and rejuvenate. The goal is to feel pretty good at the end of most of your days, with energy left over to meet your needs.
Most of our mentors with long successful careers have good self-care habits, an awareness of their blind spots and bad habits, and know when to ask for support. Ask your mentor for their ideas.
If you are new at this, any new self-care steps you can add will erode your unconscious beliefs that cause you to act against yourself. Cure your own passive aggressive tendencies towards yourself, and self-care and a long career become much easier. Above all, choose self-care that fits with your lifestyle, personality, and physical sensitivities.
In the last article I gave you some easy starter ideas for self-care, and I highly encourage you to create a self-care toolkit. When one tool isn’t working, switch to another one that works better.
I’m dedicated to service and intend to have a long career of it, so I knew I needed to find sustainable self-care routines. After trying many things I’ve created a holistic toolkit for staying contented in my body, mind, emotions and spirit no matter what my workload brings. The self-care toolkit I weave into my life includes:
- Eating 3 good meals a day, with foods I know my body loves. I include one super food and take a few supplements.
- Exercising 3 times a week. Drinking 6-8 glasses of water a day.
- I use a brief meditation/visualization every day, connecting with my sources of spiritual support and rejuvenation energy. (Sometimes I do it on the treadmill at the gym to save time!)
- Cultivating loving relationships for a regular dose of deeper connection.
- Dancing and creative expression at least once a week.
- If I get in a “mood” I check whether a part of myself needs something. I do my best to get that taken care of as soon as possible.
- When I’m stressed, I consciously breathe more deeply. Oxygen combats stress toxins!
- Balancing “me” time with “people” time. Giving myself time for self-intimacy.
Since I learned to weave these habits into my day, I get compliments like, “Octavia, you always seem calm and peaceful. I know I can trust you.” And that makes my job easier!
These articles show how self-care dynamics tie in to our personal growth and our higher purpose. Your service is essential to the betterment of our world, so please stay at peak performance in your career and in life.
If you get stuck and feel unable to take even the easiest self-care steps, it’s time to reach out for help as your first act of self-love. We are complex people and even with a lot of training we may not be able to access the reasons why we thwart ourselves. If you need more support, schedule a Welcome Session to see if Shamanic Energy Healing may help you gain clarity on taking the best care of yourself.
Want to read the whole series? Here are the handy-dandy links:
Part 1: Self-Care Quiz: Are You REALLY worth it?
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