Surround Yourself With More Love
When circumstances change suddenly, and life looks different from what you planned, a confident conscience thinker knows it time to pivot. Few things are less taxing than caring for a loved one, although it can be very rewarding, it also involves many stressors, which can take a negative effect on your health.
Some of the common signs and symptoms of caregiver stress include anxiety, depression, irritability, feeling tired and run down, difficulty sleeping, overreacting to minor nuisances and new or worsening health problems. Just to name a few!
As a caregiver, you can sometimes become so involved in the day-to-day efforts of caring for a loved one, it's possible to start down a destructive path of not taking time to properly care for yourself. Caregiving can be demanding, whether you take care of a disabled child, a spouse, sibling or a parent. Unfortunately, rather than openly expressing feelings and seeking help, many people overeat or use alcohol as a coping mechanisms. Some of us even become inpatient and agitated or completely lose our sense of purpose and self.
I noticed that I was experiencing a few of these symptoms, which prompted me to write this article and to take some steps to get back on track. I realized I needed to design an elegant simple solution, to show myself some love. And I thought I would invite you to join this journey.
The importance of self-care
I am challenging myself to commit to taking exquisite care of myself, bringing harmony back into my life. I have created an imbalance by overcommitting and neglecting myself. Let’s do this together.
This challenge will require that you put yourself in the top 3 of your list of priorities for 30 days, which may be extremely uncomfortable for some of you. For some it will be about taking it to the next level, but for all of us, it’s about being honest with where we are neglecting ourselves and making the commitment to love and care for ourselves just a little more deeply and fully.
Remember your Decisions and are creating your life!
Decide to make healthy decisions to support your overall health including your mental and emotional well-being and follow through with the plan. Set yourself up for success.
Let’s employ the powerful concept of pre-deciding. Pre-deciding is making a choice now about what you’ll do in the future. Pre-deciding makes your creative versus reactive. The more you decide ahead of time, who you will be and how you’ll show up, the more success you will see. Make healthy choices, pre-decide what you’ll eat, how you’ll exercise, how you’ll take out time for yourself. Decide what you want to make a commit to this month and be precise. Example: will say “no” to anything that feels like a should.
Create Your V.I.P. Inner Circle
These are people that you choose to surround yourself, they reflect who you are, and who you desire to become. Important fact: your values and standards should be mirrored back to you from the people you have in your V.I.P. inner circle. Your valuable inner circle is incomplete if you don't have people you can learn from, people who inspire you and people who make you feel comfortable and truly free and seen.
Design A Beautiful Peaceful Space
Set up a private space that will support and nourish you. Think carefully if you could revamp one room in your home to support this goal, what would you change first, it can be something as simple as adding a few live plants and some candles. Add a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. In this personal space what do you see, hear, touch and smell?
Each day commit to showing up on purpose, take steps to make yourself look and feel beautiful. Our dress and grooming can influence how we interact with ourselves and others.
• Make space for fun, pleasure, and replenishment each day!
• Eat foods that make you feel fabulous!
• Move your body to a place of joy!
dance, jump around, take a walk-in nature etc.
REMEMBER, the meaning of “selfishness” is: “a concern for one’s own welfare or advantage at the expense of or in disregard of others.” So, setting aside time for yourself is not, you disregarding your loved ones, you are simply setting a new important much needed boundary in your life.