Self-Fulfillment, Self-Love
Time to Rebalance? 6 Ways to Rediscover and Take Action On What’s Important to You
It might be your garden or your children.
Perhaps spending time with good friends.
Maybe it’s an early morning walk or meditation.
Or a date night with your significant other.
What fills your soul with joy?
More importantly, are you making the time for it?
We all have commitments that require a great deal of time and energy. As high-achieving women, we tend to work hard on what we believe will bring us profit and success. Yet this drive is also a powerful force that can take us away from other, more meaningful experiences, potentially creating an imbalance in life.
Balance is an important element to consider as you move through your day. It calibrates your energy and enhances aspects of life, such as: health, work performance, relationships, and personal growth. Even when you have a pressing goal that keeps you working round the clock, it’s still essential to make time for balance. So, look at what you may have relinquished in the past because you just didn’t have the time.
We can all benefit by embracing activities that hold more meaning for us. There’s much more to life than accomplishing the most immediate goals on your plate. For example, experiencing a greater sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. When you make the time to focus on and prioritize what you may previously have set aside, you discover renewed joy and a balance that allows you to thrive.
How will you know what a balanced life looks like? Consider the following elements…
A Balanced Life Includes:
Fitness/Health
Staying active is important, not only for your physical health, but for your mental health as well. Health and fitness help with brain activity, making you feel more alert, focused and present. It also helps regulate hormones that manage mood swings and help you sleep, two important factors that promote wellbeing in all areas of life.
Faith/Spirituality
Having faith or a spiritual practice can give you a sense of purpose. Identifying your beliefs can positively shape your values and priorities, which can lead to more focused and conscious actions.
Family
Sharing quality time and communicating with loved ones promotes deeper feelings of trust. This can help you make more powerful choices and grow into the person you’re meant to become.
Finances
If you’ve ever experienced the burden of financial stress, you know it can suffocate your well-being. Getting your finances in order will release that stressor and allow you to focus on more positive things.
Friends
Much like family, friends will help you grow. A good mix of friends and family is an awesome support system that will help you achieve and maintain balance.
Fulfillment
Consider your most meaningful accomplishments when yearning for a balanced life. To achieve your heart’s desire is an amazing feeling! Celebrating these moments provides the inspiration that carries you forward on your life’s path. This serves as positive reinforcement of how far you’ve come on your journey!
Fun
Embrace playfulness! Fun can balance stress and worry. Bring out the child within – have fun, laugh, and experience greater joy!
Personal Growth
As you grow you learn, and as you learn you grow. Without personal growth, you can not conceive the wisdom that brings balance to your mind and soul.
Take a moment to reflect on these 8 elements.
Are you sacrificing one for another? If so, consider how that impacts you.
You can regain harmony and improve your overall wellbeing as you achieve a life of balance.
6 Ways To Rediscover and Take Action on What’s Important
1. Commit to a daily intention
Think about which areas you desire to put more attention towards. Shift your focus to what’s more meaningful. Speaking this new intention into existence daily will help you commit to what’s truly important.
2. Focus on progress, not perfection
Perfection is an illusion. Through my spiritual journey, I have learned that we are perfectly imperfect beings. And that is perfect! When we can accept that – and stop striving for perfection – we will have the time and energy to devote toward more meaningful experiences.
3. Notice how you spend your free time
No judgment. Simply ask yourself if your activities are taking you in the direction of your life’s vision. Once you evaluate the use of your free time, you may choose to change your habits to those that promote a more balanced lifestyle.
4. Say “No”
It can be a virtue to be helpful, but not when it’s at your own expense. You need not please or appease others. It is healthier to respectfully say “No” than to feel resentment (toward yourself and others) and exhaustion.
5. Schedule alone time
Enjoying “me-time” reconnects you with your feelings and enables you to organize your priorities. This gives you greater internal power and the freedom to address the 8 personal elements mentioned above.
6. Declutter
Out with the old and in with the new! Apply this concept to all areas of your life. If the amount of time and effort is greater than the return, release it to make space for what adds more value to your life .
Rebalance your life by rediscovering and taking action on what’s most important to you. Uplevel your wellbeing by devoting time and energy on what will feed your spirit. Reconnect with what you love – your family, your garden, your Saturday bike rides, or your evening meditation. When you realign with your passions you’ll find a greater balance within, satisfying the essential aspects of your Self.
When you rebalance your life by reconnecting with your passion, you experience greater fulfillment, freedom, and joy!
Uncategorized
Everywhere you look, you can learn new ways to practice self-care — books, blogs, videos, podcasts. You’ll find catchy headlines like…
10 Ways to Take Care of Yourself
5 Self-Care Tips That Will Revolutionize Your Life
20 Daily Habits to Upgrade Your Self-Care Routine
Self-care is trending, and for good reason. It helps you stay grounded, empowered, and most importantly — free from signs of burnout.
However, the media is skewing our perception of self-care. What comes to mind when you hear the word “self-care?” You might think of spas, scented bubble baths, or a shopping spree.
The media offers only a limited version of self-care. There’s so much more to learn about what self-care really means.
The Truth: What Self-Care Really Means
You might believe that self-care is an indulgence — eating that extra red velvet cupcake, blowing your money on that new makeup palette, or staying out late to socialize.
More often, this is treating yourself rather than practicing self-care. Self-care is about respecting your mind and body. It’s more than rest and relaxation. It’s also challenging yourself to grow into the person you want to become. It’s about setting personal goals and achieving them.
While self-care can be enjoyable — a relaxing massage or sugary treat — it can also be difficult and uncomfortable.
Self-Care Is Not Always Pretty or Fun
Self-care can be unglamorous. Sometimes, it can be downright scary.
It might test your limits. It may cause discomfort. But that’s sometimes necessary if you want to respect your body and achieve your goals.
Yes, self-care might look like a deep-tissue massage after a stressful work week. But it can also look like:
- Getting honest with yourself about your finances by creating a budget
- Having a challenging conversation with your significant other because you’re unhappy
- Letting go of a toxic friend because their negativity is affecting your well-being
- Heading to the gym, despite wanting to lounge at home
- Seeing a therapist to unearth your suppressed emotions and insecurities
Some of these situations nudge you to travel outside your comfort zone. You may want to retreat and hide from the world.
But, you see…
That’s the truth about self-care. It’s the uncomfortable things you choose to do that help you to grow.
How to Implement Real Self-Care In Your Life
You might still be grappling with this new definition of self-care. It may be different from anything you’ve read before. To help you come to terms with this revelation and apply it in your life, I propose the following tips:
#1 Make Real Self-Care Non-Negotiable
Do you want to know the secret to making self-care stick — even the activities you don’t like doing?
Make it a daily habit.
Self-care isn’t something you do when you feel like it. It isn’t like scheduling that two-week vacation each year.
It’s a daily commitment.
It means doing both the things you want to do and the things that you don’t want to do every day.
Self-care is indulging in a scented salt bath and walking 10,000 steps. It’s dressing up to feel beautiful and going to bed on time for a restful night’s sleep.
Most importantly, self-care is understanding the relationship between small habits and life-changing results over time. However, this positive shift happens only when self-care is non-negotiable in your daily life.
#2 Get Clear On Your Values
Instead of thinking of self-care as a list of things to check off, try seeing it as a lifestyle that aligns with your values.
Take a moment to pause and reflect on your values.
If your current values are focused on health, how would that affect how you practice self-care? Yoga and resistance training would make sense, but indulging in a decadent slice of chocolate cake would not.
What if one of your values is around being an empowered career woman? Self-care can look like attending a conference to improve your skills. Staying out late and compromising your sleep, however, would likely conflict with this value.
Real self-care is different for each woman. Your values might be different from mine. What’s important is that you identify what your values are and how you can cater your habits to manifesting them.
#3 Use Self-Care as a Compass, Not an Escape
Have you ever skipped a workout and treated yourself to a night in with Netflix and pizza instead? Or put off working on a project because you felt that you deserved to grab drinks with your friends?
If you do this routinely, you might be using self-care as an escape — an excuse to avoid your responsibilities.
This is not self-care. This is avoidance and procrastination… and can actually cause more stress than relief.
Rather, self-care activities align with the life you’re hoping to achieve. If you want to be more healthy and energetic, then exercise will serve you well. If you want to get that promotion at work, then staying productive without procrastinating aligns with that goal.
Self-care is like a compass — the self-care habits you build will lead you to your destination.
Share below the one thing that you know you need to do. Then let me know, is this the day you’ll take action on it?
Get Started With Self-Love
Remember what I mentioned earlier about self-care being uncomfortable?
Here’s a question I have for you: Do you love yourself?
If you answered no, you’re not alone. Many women struggle with insecurities and low self-esteem. You might even feel that you’re undeserving of love from yourself.
But here’s the thing.
Self-care is both physical and emotional. You can apply a face mask to achieve glowing skin, but that does little to radiate genuine love towards yourself.
When you look in the mirror, I want you to love the woman looking back at you. To help manifest this in your reality, sign up for my free From Burnout to Balance 7-Day Self-Love Challenge.
During these 7 days, we’ll look at what’s really going on beneath the signs of burnout and I’ll give you simple strategies for how to turn things around so you can get on the path towards balance and enjoying your life (again).
If you’re ready to break out of the burnout cycle and desire to be…
- Relaxed and confident, knowing you’re tending to the most important priorities
- Energized, clear and focused
- Calm, easy-going and peaceful
- Sleeping like a baby and waking up rested
- Engaged, inspired and passionate about your life
Join me by clicking here to sign up for my next From Burnout to Balance 7-Day Self-Love Challenge. It’s Free!
Burnout, Self-Care
You go flat out all the time.
You pride yourself on handling everything. No matter what’s thrown at you, you catch it and, seemingly without effort, add it to all the other plates you’re spinning.
A last-minute assignment at work?
No problem.
Making goodies for the school fund raiser?
You’re on it.
Carpooling kids sports teams, extra laundry from game day, boning up for a big career promotion – it’s all good.
Until your body crumbles under the burden of too much stress, too little sleep, and sporadic self-care, at best. You feel exhausted; utterly spent, lucky if you can drag yourself through each day.
Whoa, now. These signs of burnout are serious. I urge you to commit yourself to practicing physical self-care or you’ll be too burned out to enjoy your life at all.
What Exactly Is Physical Self-Care Anyway?
A good physical self-care routine incorporates diet, exercise, and the quality of your sleep.
Here’s why they’re important not only to general physical self-care but also for the prevention and healing of burnout:
A poor diet can profoundly impact your immune system, mental health, and risk for chronic disease. When you rely mostly on fast foods, you can further compound the risks of dietary issues and amplify the effects of stress on yourself.
Exercise is also an important part of self-care, especially if your job requires you to do a lot of sitting. The Harvard School of Public Health recommends healthy adults get at least 75 to 150 minutes of moderate to intense physical activity each week. Take a walk, go for a run, or dance. Do something you enjoy and move your body!
Curiously, getting enough high-quality sleep often gets overlooked. And how often have we sacrificed sleep in order to keep over-taxing ourselves?
However, a recent study in the Journal of Neuroscience points out that lack of sleep may actually cause irreversible damage to brain cells. I don’t mean to scare you – but I do want you to be aware of the risks of lack of sleep.
As well, sleep is also important for healing, weight loss, and maintaining healthy stress and hormone levels. The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep each night for adults to remain healthy. I know what you’re thinking…
“Okay, great, but how the heck do I sleep better?”
Click here for tips on how to get restful sleep.
Last but certainly not least, take charge of your medical health. Make sure you get an annual physical check-up and a women’s wellness appointment to check your reproductive health, including breast and pelvic exams, and a Pap test. Also, schedule any other tests that are recommended for your age group. So many of my clients neglect this important part of their physical self-care that I wanted to be sure to mention this.
How To Create A Supportive Routine
First, ask yourself what your goal is for a physical self-care routine. Getting specific will help you tailor one to your particular needs. Here’s a step-by-step guide for you:
#1 Identify how you want to feel
A great way to start is to ask yourself how you want to feel. Perhaps you’d like to feel energized, optimistic, or cheerful.
- If you like to journal, write out your goal as clearly and vividly as you can.
- If you’re a visual person, you may want to sketch your goal with colored pencils, or create a vision board that represents what you are working towards.
#2 Create action items to accomplish your goal
Next, include specific actions that will support you. They may be things like:
- Wake up earlier
- Go dancing
- Take a warm bath
- Get a massage
- Learn about healthy eating
#3 Set yourself up for success
I encourage you to set yourself up for success! As highly-accomplished women, I know how we like to dive wholeheartedly into something new. Which, in this case, can be a recipe for failure. So I want you to take baby steps with your routine.
- Add physical self-care gradually so you aren’t overwhelmed – this will help you break free from the burnout cycle.
- Also, consider asking someone you trust to hold you accountable. If you have someone who’ll check on you, it’s easier to stick to the commitment you made and to remember your reasons why.
- Another helpful tip is to put everything into your calendar. Every night, plan out your schedule or review it for the next day.
But remember – baby steps, please!
What To Do If Your Routine Needs Tweaking
Even with the best of intentions, and a wonderful accountability partner, there may still come a day when you realize you’ve let your physical self-care slip.
One of the most important parts of self-care is being able to recognize when you need to tweak it. Because, as you know, if you neglect your own self-care, even a little, you can experience burnout.
If you find yourself feeling worn down, and you’d swear your routine isn’t working, I’d like you to pause and reflect. Perhaps you’ve been letting your physical self-care go little by little, until the cumulative effect has snuck up on you.
Or maybe you just need to tweak the activities in your routine so they’re more in line with your goal.
Please don’t just convince yourself that it’s not working, then abandon it. You deserve nurturing. You likely just need to fine-tune your self-care to feel better and bring yourself back from burnout.
You can also sign up for my mailing list to receive regular tips and advice for getting out of burnout and back into balance.
Share Your Favorite Physical Self-Care Ideas
Even if you don’t already have a physical self-care routine, you already know what sounds enticing to you.
You may be someone who would adore going for a walk alone in the woods. Or luxuriating in a spa day with a massage and pedicure.
What would feel best to you? If you could wave a magic wand, what kind of self-care would you get?
Given your current commitments, what one pleasurable self-care action could you take right now?
You get the idea! Share in the comments below.
