Do Your To-Do's Include You?

Caution: cliché alert!!!

• You can’t pour from an empty vessel.
• Almost everything will work if you unplug it for a few minutes – even you.
• We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.

Yes, you’re right – this edition of the newsletter is about self-care. July is Self-Care month and yesterday was International Self-Care Day. And if you’re like nearly everyone else, me included, self-care isn’t at the top of your to-do list each day, and it needs to be, for both of us.

Why? Don’t make me point you back up to those cliches, ok? The reason phrases become repeated so often that they become trite and clichéd is because – drum roll please – they’re true. They resonate, and have resonated for decades, if not hundreds of years. And yet here we are, talking about how we neglect our own self-care.

How can we make our own care a priority? First, give yourself credit for the things you already do for yourself:

• Bathe
• Dental hygiene
• At least some attention to appearance and clothing (hair cut, manicure, etc. included here)
• Sleep
• Nutrition
• Exercise

Hmmmmmm…there might be one or two on that list I could improve upon…how about you? If so, that’s OK. Today, make a list of what constitutes self-care for you. Make sure things you love to do are on the list – things like going to a movie, dancing, reading – whatever feeds your soul, put it on the list because it counts as self-care. If you need some inspiration, the world’s second-shortest podcast has a few episodes that can help:

• Do you want at least 8 reasons to focus on self-care? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
• Need a self-care tool that helps end imposter syndrome? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!
• Do you need a reminder on why to care for yourself? Here’s a Tiny Bite for that!

Self-care looks like different things for different people. Only you can decide what you need more of in your life, and only you can make yourself enough of a priority to add those things to your life. When you make your mental and physical wellbeing a priority each day, you create a better “you” to help your family, friends, co-workers, and the world be better.

Oops…I mean when WE make our mental and physical wellbeing a priority each day, WE create a better us to help our family, friends, co-workers, and the world be better.  Because no one can pour from an empty vessel.  

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