Self Care=Self Awareness

Last week I did a presentation on self care.   Self care is one of my favorite and more popular topics and I have presented on this topic numerous times.  Self care is at the crux of all we do, if we aren't caring for ourselves, nurturing ourselves that we aren't as happy, productive, and engaged.  Self care is also such a 'buzz word' these days.  We all know HOW to care for ourselves.

As I was preparing for the presentation I pulled out my usual information about taking care of the self body, mind and spirit.  I looked at my information on taking 3 deep breaths, getting enough sleep, exercising, eating right and drinking enough water.  I then thought about my own struggle with self care--it isn't so much that I don't know HOW to do it or don't know what the ideal steps to self care are--it is that I get so caught up in my own to do list, obligations (real and imagined) and the anxiety that surrounds them that I don't even notice that my neck is hurting or my breathe is shallow and from my chest.

The times I am most successful at self care is when I am taking the time to build in self awareness.  When I take the time to notice how I am feeling, to pay attention to my body and not just what comes next.  I have found, self care has to start with having self awareness that we need to take care of ourselves. To break the cycle of push, push, push we need to establish time to do that.  We need to establish rituals that break us out of our every day patterns.

Rituals such as:

• Every time you hit a stop light take 3 deep belly breaths.
• At work every time you hang up the phone take a drink of water.
• Every hour get up and walk around or do some stretching.
• When you are eating a meal, pay attention to what and how you are eating.
• When you are in the shower, take time to really be in the shower not reciting your to do list. 

When we can establish these rituals we bring to break the cycle of push push push, we hop off the proverbial treadmill for a period of time and bring awareness to our mind, body and spirit.  From this point from this place of awareness we can then bring some self care, self acceptance and self love.  The trick is to not only engage in the rituals but after each ritual or as we are doing the ritual to bring awareness to our body, mind and spirit.

Self awareness give us a chance to tune into what we are really feeling, what we need and how we can best care for ourselves.  Bottom line without self awareness there can be no self care.  Without self care there can be no growth because we are too freakin' exhausted from the obligations of life to really think about what it is we need, want and desire.

What about you where do you struggle in adding self care to your life?  What self care/self awareness rituals have you implemented in your own life?