A lot of people are talking about self-care at the moment.
No wonder - the world has gone crazy in a lot of areas. Many things are getting more extreme - the middle ground seems to get smaller and smaller - and with prices rising and war around the corner many people worry a lot.
The antidote: self-care to not burn out and to make sure that you can be your best self.
BUT - what IS self-care really?
A lot of advice goes in the direction of
- Doing something for yourself - like a bubble bath or a hike in the mountains
- Exercise to work through the stress
- Sleep
- Meditation
- Take more time off
All good ideas.
Today I'd like to suggest something else.
Something that goes deeper and has the potential to eliminate sources of stress.
Setting boundaries - a perfect way of self-care.
That, of course, requires you to KNOW what you are available for and what not, how I tend to phrase it - I found that easier to answer than "what my boundaries are" - the result is the same.
- Maybe you're not available for overworking - and still do it.
- Maybe you're not available for abusive language (attention - this can come from others OR yourself…listen to what you tell yourself!) - and still listen to it or say it to yourself.
- Maybe you're tired of jumping into every gap - and still, do it.
- Maybe you're not available for overtaking more tasks from others - and still, say yes.
All eventually triggering the feeling of "it's-all-too-much".
So - I invite you to start your self-care earlier - not just when you're close to giving up, desperation or utter exhaustion.
Let's call it prevention instead of treating the pain.
And most of the time we got to do a bit (or much) of both.
Boundaries are a start.
The next step is listening to what we really need….that's stuff for another post. And if you're curious and want to find out NOW how to listen to yourself, just drop me a line at [email protected] and let's talk.
