In the past two weeks we have had International Women's Day alongside Mother's Day, so what a great time to cheer for all the women, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, family and friends that make up our wonderful community at MovES.
I thought this might be an apt time to talk about self care as I know for alot of people (women often in particular) this is something that we find is often way down the list. Do you give yourself time to focus on the 'her' in mother?
You might of heard about the cup of resilience or the stress bucket, or if not feel free to have a google!
Both of these concepts relate to the amount of stressors placed on our body/mind that basically fill a cup/bucket. Whether that be a lack of sleep, work/family stress, pain/tension, lack of good nutrients etc. its important that we manage to reduce this impact by nourishing the body/mind through other avenues to limit the cup/bucket overflowing.
Suzy Reading is an author and psychologist. Suzy’s take is that self care does not equate with with pampering acts, which is as it is often thought of as. She describes self-care as being responsive to our needs so sometimes that will involve slowing down and other times it calls on us to step up and take action.
Eo there are many different parhs self care can take, physical, mental, social, financial or spiritual and these can ebb and flow and vary depending in what we need at a given time. What it is important is that we take the time to listen to what we might need at a given time and respond accordingly. Its important therefore to regularly schedule pockets of time that give you the opportunity to tune in to what you need and how you are feeling. To me this is a regular time to exercise and be in nature within my week; these two things ground and centre me and provide me with the head space to check in with myself and where I am at. Do you know what yours are?
“We are all kinder, more compassionate and resilient people – this is the gift of self-care and it is a true win win.”