Taking care of yourself is so much more than just ‘me time’

Every day should actually focus on the theme love. Love for each other but love for yourself as well! We hear and read a lot about taking care of yourself. But when you think about it, me time usually comes down to taking a hot bubble bath, giving yourself flowers or pouring another glass of champagne. Yes that is taking care of yourself, but real self care is so much deeper. It begins with setting your boundaries.

So what is self care?

Self care is taking care of your body. It’s having the courage to say no and knowing your boundaries. Self care is being in contact with yourself. It’s looking deep within yourself and asking; who am I and what do I want? And you can do that at any time. Whenever I’m driving home after a long day at work I can reflect: how has my day been? Am I energized, am I happy or do I feel rushed? At the supermarket I ask myself ‘what am I really craving for?’ Those are the important moments, it doesn’t always have to be mindfulness or yoga. Take the time and ask yourself these questions whenever you’re alone.

Why is self care so important?

In our rushed society we’ve lost touch with ourselves unfortunately. But self care has never been as important as right now… There’s a whole lot going on around burn outs, stress, diseases. People suffering from burn outs are often alienated from themselves, that’s exactly why self care is so important! They are not in touch with themselves, meaning they’re just going to continue as they were before. We get molded by society, causing us to lose our individuality and our ‘true selves’…

Know your boundaries

There is a thing known as the window of tolerance, within this window we function as optimal as we can, but once we reach our boundaries the body is in danger. Crossing these boundaries can mean anything, from stress to doing things we don’t, losing interest in our jobs or relationships. These kind of things cause us to reach our maximum. The consequence? Our brains will send us a message saying “we need to take care of ourselves, there’s to much stress here” and that symbolizes danger. Breathing problems, headaches, sleeping bad, troubles concentrating and other complaints.

That’s why self care is important: it allows us to avoid reaching our maximum in the window of tolerance and stay healthy. Regularly check how you’re doing, and listen to your body.

Due to my background as psychologist, I can tell you a lot about this subject. If you wish to know more, be sure to let me know.

How do you take care of yourself?

There isn’t something as the correct way to take care of yourself. Yes there are magazines and gurus that claim to have found the way, but self care starts with yourself. You have to make the choices and let anyone tell you how to take care of yourself.

How would you do that, taking care of yourself? Does it work for you and have you got tips for others? Let’s motivate one another!

Team SELF