I’ll be honest folks. I’m not feeling very inspirational or self care-y today. It’s April and I’m still wearing my winter coat. This makes me real grumpy. Also I’m craving all of the cheeses. Blocks and blocks of it. And my feet HURT.
Ugh.
On days like today I have to remember a couple of things. My grumpiness and body aches are all clues. When I’m at work I tend to turn down the volume on my physical and mental health needs, but today I muted it. No bueno. Yes I had to pay attention to the needs of others at work, but that doesn’t mean I needed to ignore myself entirely.
I went into caregiver mode, which basically means autopilot. I didn’t pee, despite needing to for wayyy too long. I felt a headache but didn’t attend to it, until it was a tad too late. I realized I was hungry by the time I’m STARVING. And because water was not physically brought to my parched lips, I didn’t remember to drink it.
When I get flung into the express lane of a busy day, it takes a lot to make me stop and check in with myself. I get into the mindset of “I just have to get through this day.” But is that the life I want to life? A life where I am just trying to get through it? No. It isn’t. I will have moments when I absolutely need to hustle, and others where hustling is not a necessity in the moment. It’s time I started noticing the difference. Operating from a place of stress and ultimately exhaustion is not sustainable. It’s just not. It’s no way to live.
Now don’t worry, I’m not beating myself up over here. I’m just seeing my day a lot clearer. I forgot to pay attention. My physical body just felt a little neglected and staged a riot around 5 o’clock. Fair.
We aren’t always going to be rocking our self care worlds. We are going to have days when we forget to hydrate, or eat something green, or walk 10,000 steps, or rest, or unplug, or connect. But tomorrow is another day, reset that button and start fresh tomorrow.
You in?
Take care of YOU.
Self-care for Caregivers 