When was the last time you put yourself first? Honestly, put yourself first without feeling selfish? It’s common to put other things before us, causing us to be last on our list. It happens far too often but I am glad to hear more about self-care at work, home, and even in church. It’s about time we stop chasing the clock or even chasing the “bag” without putting ourselves on the schedule.
Self-care is critical and now more than ever, we hear or even read about what self-care is and how it benefits our life. But it leaves some of us pondering on HOW to do these things, while we understand the benefits and may even tackled into some self-care every now and then, it’s easy to get stuck on the how, resulting in hesitancy or discontinuing our self-care practices.
How can one take off or take a break when they have multiple responsibilities? When work, parenting, and other obligations cannot be put to the side? Whenever we ask these questions it’s hard to figure out the how resulting in an unmet need we set within ourselves. This leads to frustration and can cause one to be overwhelmed. Our bodies need to rest and we MUST listen. If we don’t listen to our bodies at some point our bodies are going to make us listen!
Recently I discussed, Signs You Need To Take A Mental Health Day, it goes into detail of what to look for and when to check in on yourself and put a pause on things that are frustrating you. But how do you take a mental health day? That’s the question I want to answer for you here.
How To Take Your Mental Health Day With Ease
Plan: look at your calendar for the next month. Take a good overview of what you have going on. Where you see some gaps, think about what day would be best to fit YOU on the schedule. Add Personal Time to the calendar and put the request in. Take it a step future and look at the following month, continue to do this for the rest of the year. When you schedule yourself on a calendar you can plan around your personal days, versus you planning a personal day around your busy jammed pack schedule. Thank me later!
Reach out: this is the time to put pride aside. Asking for help does not make you less of a person. When you reach out, people will find ways to help you, if not then you are not in the right circle of friends, (my personal opinion). If you have children who have places to be, think about carpooling. Talk to a parent, significant other, or a family member about helping with pick ups and drop offs. Hire a sitter, think about a neighbor or a good friend you have that can babysit to lessen the burden of your daily routines.
Do it: planning is one thing, but implementing it into your schedule is another. Don’t be the person who plans and don’t act. Make it a priority to put in personal time. Take the moment this week to see how you spend idle time. Are you running around all day or spending time scrolling on Tik-Tok or Instagram? Are their pockets in your days for personal time? Observe every aspect of your life and what you have going on. You will be surprised to see what you do with frivolous time.
We all need a break! At times we get so caught up with work, we forget to take a day off. Plan something fun or don’t plan anything at all. Reset in a positive way is important and something we need to take into consideration. I personally think mental health days should happen every six weeks at the least. If you are having trouble check out our magazine and read articles on what we have to offer, regarding mindfulness, self-care and more! We even offer subscription services to make purchasing less of a worry for you. When you put yourself first, it allows others to receive the best part of you. And most importantly it makes us feels good.
Let me know what are some of the things you like to do during your personal time? Share below, what you may do can inspire someone else to do the same!