The Importance of Self Care

The Vancouver coastline

Yes, we all have obligations to people and tasks in our lives.  Far too often, we put ourselves last in an effort to appease everyone else and we find ourselves constantly saying "yes" to everything that is asked of us.  Consider this quote provided by one of my favorite professors:

"When you never say 'no', your 'yes' isn't worth very much."

In this world we value the rare, so ration your "yes"'s and spend the rest of your time doing some (or all) of the following:

• read a book
• take a long, relaxing bath
• meditate (or just close your eyes and take deep breaths in and out)
• go to your _____ (insert any sport here) league to play a game
• go for a long walk, taking lots of detours to meander through public parks
• go to a pottery class
• write in your journal 
• make something (knitting, sewing, woodwork, painting) 
• take a nap
• crank your ipod and have a one-person dance party in your apartment
• spend all day in a used book store
• spend all day in a cozy cafe with your sketchbook
• make music with anything from a piano to an empty ice cream tub

Fostering your creative side and honouring your self care regime will add balance to your life and ensure that you enjoy life and don't feel burnt out.  

Have a wonderful day!

This Just In: Gratefulness Not Dead

I recently read an article in Tonic magazine that addressed the concept of gratefulness.  The article outlined that with everything being so readily available in our electronic world, gratitude is a less likely practice.

"When we feel that we could possibly have anything we want without having to wait, then what is important about being grateful?"

Apparently there are some nice health benefits associated with gratefulness, like overall improved health and well-being, lowered blood pressure, reduced stress/anxiety and better sleep quality.  I'm not sure about you, but I notice that the people who look at life with a thankful attitude are often the most happy and successful people I know.

So how do we invite gratitude in our daily lives and see these health benefits? The author of the article, Sonia Byrne, said it is as easy as simply listing 3 things from the day that you are grateful for while you are in bed getting ready to sleep for the night.  It turns out that ending the day in gratitude is the ideal way to help gratitude seep into your unconscious mind.

Now, some days finding 3 things will be a breeze and some days it may take a bit of searching but as long as you cultivate awareness of what you can be grateful for, you will automatically seek it out in your daily lives :)

Have a wonderful, grateful day!