I got back into the yoga studio last week, a new studio for me, to expand my self-care to nourish my body and mind. It was time. My beloved yoga studio closed during the pandemic and never reopened. I was feeling isolated, and I was isolating.
I’m a natural introvert, and moving my business from in-person, hands-on chiropractic and acupuncture practice, to 95% virtual with my Functional Medicine and Health Coaching programs for women has been heaven for me. It’s nurturing, but I was getting a bit TOO comfortable working mostly virtual.
Plus, I was feeling “one dimensional”, working all the time (since I was home and very busy with clients), putting ME aside in favor of the doing…
There is so much on self-care “out there”. I teach it and talk about it all the time.
But, it’s easy to set it aside in the name of DO-ing.
What about BE-ing instead?
What would it be like to be AS productive and generative in life, with MORE self-care?
This is my new experiment. Self-care to nourish me, leading to JOY and PLEASURE and ultimately EXPANDING my life, my body, my business, my impact, my money, my relationships.
So I’m jumpstarting my self-care by creating my list, and I encourage you to do the same.
Self-care is not just something you “do” when you have time. It’s something you invest in. It can be investing some money in doing an activity, or investing just your time in you.
In my Functional Medicine and Health Coaching practice, I work with many women who are stressed out, tired, not sleeping, gaining weight or can’t lose weight, and are just plain tired. I help them get to the root cause with hormone testing, nutrition programs and health coaching to help make those changes.
Stress in your life, you know the kind, taking care of everyone but yourself, having too much on your plate, and going all the time, it CAN wear you down by depleting your adrenal hormones.
These hormones are your “stress hormones”, your “fight or flight” hormones. Cortisol is the hormone that raises or lowers with stress, and if you are activating this daily, then it can cause the fatigue and tiredness, the weight gain and belly fat gain, the not sleeping so well, the low mood. It can also affect your other hormones too, and and can contribute to hot flashes and PMS.
This is WHY self-care is so important to your hormones. You must break this cycle of stress, calm down the fight or flight to balance your cortisol.
So make YOUR list. What nourishes you? And what can you do in 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours or a whole day? It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, and I’m sure you can do something for you everyday.
Also, what’s your self-care style? Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
I know many extroverts who love a pedicure, manicure, massage, exercise class, acupuncture, going places, doing things and being around other people.
If you are an introvert like me, you may need to nurture that part of you, with some alone time, a hot bath, a restorative or yin yoga class, reading, writing, playing music, getting a relaxing massage.
You need to find what you, and your body, desires.
And don’t forgot the other part of self-care, the most important one, making YOU a PRIORITY. Learning to have boundaries around your time, and learning to say NO. The world won’t fall apart if you don’t do everything for everybody all the time. I know this is hard for us as women, but it’s essential to having healthy hormones.
Where are you with your self-care? Do you do a little, some or a lot?
Where ever you are it’s okay, just start with something, your hormones will thank you for it!
Please check out my Free Guide for you: “5 Steps for Women to Have More Energy”
