Self Care

Self Care is the arguably the most critical aspect of ones life. Taking the time and putting forth the effort in to caring for oneself emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually are crucial to one's ability to be their best in all aspects of life. One of my philosophy's on life is in order for me to speak and help guide others I must life the live I profess to be an expert in, therefore leading by example. If I am unable to care for myself then I feel I have little room to share and guide others in their process, even if I have the knowledge.

Being a professional in the field of holistic health and wellness I am offered the opportunity to meet, speak, guide, share, teach, learn from a number of people on a day in and day out basis. This exposes me to a wealth of information that I in turn work to better understand so I can have a greater compassion and an even greater ability to offer guidance on such informative areas/topics. For this and many other reasons I am out acquiring skills, abilities, information, knowledge, etc. to enhance my ability to lead myself and others.

So why this topic and why talk about myself? Well, I hope that last section gave you a bit of insight on why the topic and more importantly why I talk of myself. The reason for this topic of self care is simple, upon reflection I am recognizing that people are often remarking on the same issues to me. What I have found is many or most of the issues are reflections on their inability to take care of themselves or in general care for themselves. the reasons are vast, lack of knowledge on the how to's; lack of awareness that they are failing to 'truly care for themselves; disillusion around the meaning of themselves; and various other reasons. Whether they are valid or not is up to the individual but in my opinion they truly have validity I am just not sure they are reliable (from a statistical perspective).

For the sake of simplicity I offer an example. In a discussion with a client today, she mentioned that the area around her elbow was bothering her. Now this is not the first time and I would say it has been going on for months. Throughout this period I have offered her a number of solutions through self care practices as well as given her a prescription on how to apply, how often, etc. Fortunately, she had seen improvement but unfortunately once she got better she stopped doing what the prescribed remedies. Even though they worked before today she mentioned her issue again and we covered the prescription again, self care through the use of X, Y, and Z.

Self Care practice never stops, this is the key point to the example and more important a key point to self care. It starts with everyday, every waking and sleeping minute of each day. It extends from our thoughts, to our habits, to what we eat, who we surround ourselves with, our interactions with people and ourself, our exercise/movement habits, our every action, and our ability to apply daily.

I hypothesize that many of the afflictions that face people on a personal level could be minimized if not totally eliminated with a healthy approach to a daily practice of self care. This may mean there is a need to go out and learn and acquire skills and tools for successful implementation (whether done through hiring an expert or reading a book or speaking with people whom you believe have informative knowledge). Whatever the case think about your self care practice and how it can improve and how it may help you improve others lives outside your own.