Hopefully, by now, you’ve learned the importance of self-care and how little things that we can incorporate into our daily lives can have significant impacts on our mind, body, and spirit.
Self-care shouldn’t involve spending tons of money on extravagant things to make you feel good. Those types of things give us a high for only a short amount of time. It’s the small gestures of kindness that do the most good in the long run.
That includes Meditation. Meditation helps us physically, emotionally, and mentally. Many people disregard it because they don’t understand it. Trust me; I’ve been there when I first started meditating my mind raced with thoughts all the time. I thought there was no possible way I could ever quiet my mind enough to get any benefit from it.
What I did know was that I had to try. It started me on a journey of meditation practice. I say practice because that is what it is and always will be. Years later, I still have times that I sit down in silence, and my mind will sometimes wander. I gently refocus back onto my breath time and time again.
I can’t even begin to express what meditating has done for me. I used to be an anxious person before I started meditating. My roommate (as I like to call my thoughts) would jump from one idea to the next so often that it felt like my thoughts had their thoughts. I’m sure many can relate to this.
Over the years and I don’t even know when it happened, I realized that I felt more peaceful. I was more focused on single-tasking, and I could control what thoughts come into my head. I’ve never felt more in control of myself, and it’s because of meditating.
How do you meditate?
Find a quiet place to sit. Close your eyes and focus on your breath. If your mind starts to wander, the moment you notice it, gently refocus back to your breath. That’s it! Even doing this for ten minutes a day can give you so many benefits.
It is the basic method for meditation. There are many ways to meditate, and I will continue to share those with you in future posts. Hopefully, you will find one that works best for you.
To finish off our self-care list, we are going to cover the final three things.
Hot bath/shower.
A hot shower needs no explanation. I’m sure there isn’t one person you can find that says they got out of a hot shower and felt like crap. It’s a given that taking a hot shower or bath can make you feel better and more relaxed no matter what.
If you are a morning shower person, but you aren’t sleeping well, try taking your bath or shower at night. Add a little lavender essential oil to your bath or try a rub lavender massage oil on your body after a shower. It should help relax you and help you get better rest.
Turn off social media and technology.
I used to be great at this. I am not a huge television watcher, so when I was single. I rarely ever turned it on. I would make sure my phone and other items were off by 9:00 PM each night, and I would grab a book and read. Even when my children were small, this was our routine. They had a “quiet” time each night before bed. This time included reading or coloring, but no electronic devices.
Now, I have a guy in the house, so the television stays on a little longer than I prefer. It has caused me to backtrack a little on “quiet time.” So, this is something I will be working on myself to get back on track.
Why is this so important? Well, our electronic devices put off a blue light. This blue light affects our brains and tricks it into thinking its daylight. If you are having a hard time getting to sleep or not sleeping well through the night, try turning off all devices at least an hour before bed for at least a week and see if this helps.
Meditate.
For all the reasons I described above. I meditate every morning. My guy thinks it’s weird that I can jump up from sleep and then meditate without going back to sleep, but I do. I also try to get another quick meditation before bed. Most people find meditation so relaxing that they do it in the evening. However, any time you can meditate will be beneficial. Try starting for at least 5 minutes; then you can increase your time from there.
Next week we will have some final thoughts on self-care and go over your three self-care choices.
Articles you may have missed this past week:
Why You Should Try Yoga and My Favorite Yoga Essentials
Healthy & Delicious Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie
Peace & Love,
Ela
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.