Selfcare is the Best Care, right?

I know more often than not I’m sharing my funny parenting stories as a means to bring you levity in your day. I feel like the reality is that we’re all working so hard, the level of everyone’s adulting around me has exponentially increased over the past few years and life as a result has become this super serious affair. But really, we all need to laugh and not get so caught up in the day to day grind.

 I get it, it’s hard. I’m right there with you girl and I know that when we, especially we as moms, get caught up in that grind, the first thing we sacrifice is ourselves. Any level of selfcare goes out the door in order to take care of the tribe we have around us. That to me isn’t human nature, it isn’t even mom nature, it’s the nature of the female. We’re the consummate nurturers and protectors of ALL the things.

It’s not a bad thing, but what I see that ends up happening is by the time Thursday hits, you realize you haven’t washed your hair in 5 days and you also haven’t worked out in like 2 weeks. I say that because that was me. Or maybe I had worked out but those workouts were interrupted, they ended up not getting finished or maybe I had to lose my chicken on my tribe to tell them to eat their breakfast in order FOR me to finish the workout.

I know I’ve said before I learned to have my plan for my ideal workout and how long I would like it to take, but I’ve also learned I needed to have a back up plan as well. I still adhere to that even today. It works for my life MOST of the time. The rest of the time? I’m exercising the art of patience and flexibility which is a continual struggle for me.

I’ve learned that being selfish with my time happens more effectively when I have the support to BE selfish. It means delegating and distributing tasks, it also means giving up some control and realizing that I don’t have to do everything myself. Holy moly was that a hard thing. Especially when I first had Grace and felt like dang I have to be superwoman with all the things in my life, I have to do everything and no one can help me because if they do, then I’m not being my best for my family.

Now my selfcare is a non-negotiable part of every day. Granted it looks different every single day and is at a different time every single day, but it’s there. I know it’s going to be there because I schedule it in. Like a doctor’s appointment that has a late cancel fee, I take it that seriously and I don’t cancel on myself. I plan it every week and write it down into my calendar so I know it’s there. I let the knowledge that my selfcare is scheduled give me security that I will get that second to myself. Be it a workout or meditation, even just time to stare blankly at the TV, it gives me solace to know that I’ll be able to give to me for a little awhile.