Firstly, Happy New Year to you all!
I hope you had a restful and fun break over the holiday period.
So….can I ask you a question? Did you look after yourself? Did you get enough rest? Did you do stuff that you really wanted to do (rather than stuff you felt like you HAD to do but did not really want to)? Did you do anything that was on your fun and creativity list? What?? You don’t have a fun and creativity list? Advice….put one together and do something every week that is on it!
I had some lovely plans for some fun and creativity. Pete and I went to spend Christmas with family up in Queensland. We stayed right on the beach. It was lovely. The weather was perfect. It was great to see my family.
The only thing was …. We both had the flu!
Yep…the dreaded lurgy. My sore throat started on Christmas Eve which was the day we were catching the flight to the Sunshine Coast from Sydney.
It’s almost like your body knows when you are about to take a break after being so busy and it goes into ‘okay, now we can relax and get sick’ mode. Anybody else relate to that?
So, I had no choice but to self-care. I had to take it easy. We slept in, we ate good food, we got lots of sunshine and we took lazy walks on the beach.
I knew I had been working long and hard leading up to Christmas. Even though I thought I had a good self-care routine, it was not enough. Yes…I meditate (almost daily), I eat well, I exercise 5 times per week doing yoga, cycling, walking and resistance work. I even see a physiotherapist and an acupuncturist on a monthly basis as well as get regular massages. While all this is great…..it was not enough to keep me 100% well. My immune system was not at it’s optimum to stop this flu.
A very important thing I need to add to my self-care routine is taking time out more. No work, no housework and no screens (except Netflix). I need to take at least one or two days per week where I do pretty much NOTHING or do something on my fun and creativity list. I need to rest, regroup and give myself some time and space.
So, this is my new year resolution. Give myself time and space at least once per week. I will also schedule weekends away and some other travel throughout the year.
Now over to you!
What are you doing to self-care? What is working for you? What is not working for you? What do you need to change? Add? Reduce? Tweak?
Have you set any goals for this year yet? Setting goals allows you to focus on what you really want to achieve this year (including self-care).
If you would like some help with that, please book into my online calendar for a FREE QUICK CHAT
