Self-care are real buzz words now. Don’t get me wrong, I am a BIG believer in those words.

They took awhile for me to understand how important they are but now it’s something I try to incorporate into my life as a priority.

  I worked in the fitness industry for the past 20 plus years of my life and there was always the ‘go hard or go home’ attitude. People took pride in telling each other how they worked out so hard they vomited. Revolting right!!  Then I opened my own gym and I had to deal with the business owners favourite catch cry of “while you’re sleeping, I’m grinding”. I   really came to hate the words ‘grind’ and ‘hustle’. It was quickly made apparent that if you weren’t constantly upskilling, converting leads into clients and getting more followers on social media you just weren’t trying hard enough. Living to these standards is impossible and downright exhausting! Not to mention soul destroying. There was no room for self-care. To do this meant feeling guilty that you were resting when you should be grinding and how on earth would you ever hope to succeed if you were going to think of your own needs rather than that of your business or how many kilos you were squatting!

This is where the idea of directed rest comes in. Its more than self-care. More than daily meditation, or journaling or even booking a monthly massage. It’s a planned day once a month, or at least one afternoon a month, where you switch off your devices, you turn off the television and you take the time to really care for your emotional needs. Read the book you’ve been putting off, take a hike, head to the beach and collect memories and seashells. Really unplug. Setting this dedicated time aside is like a detox for your soul. You might even find that you want to make your directed rest longer! And as an added bonus all that hustling and grinding on the other days of the month may actually start to make some headway.

When you combine this once per month session with some smaller, less time consuming, acts of regular self-care you should really start to feel more peaceful and less anxious. A funny thing happens to you when you start to realise just how important you are, and you start showing yourself some love and care. You start to feel a new level of self confidence and you begin to want to take even better care of yourself. Eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, taking more pride in your appearance seem so much more important and natural. If all of this seems like too much hard work, or even too self-indulgent that’s ok. Start small, pick one thing that you wish was a regular “thing” you did just for you. Maybe it’s getting your nails done, maybe it’s stretching more, getting a monthly massage, trying a new recipe or drinking a cup of green tea to start your day. Whatever it is, pick one and actually do it. How did it make you feel to achieve it? Hold on to and reflect on that feeling and then do it again. Repeat.

If the only message you take from this blog is that your needs are important then I’m happy. Have a great month and hopefully I’ll see you in the massage room soon!Click here to add your own text