Self-Care: What is it and Why Do I Care?
If 2020 taught me anything, it taught me the importance of Self Care, not only for my team, but for myself. I thrive in playing the role of fearless team leader and visionary and often pretend to take lots of time for ME. And I do, but is that really enough to be considered self-care? Let’s talk about what it really means to take care of yourself, inside and out.
Let me first start by explaining that I am a complete workaholic, I wouldn’t know work-life balance if it slapped me in the face and self-care is a total work in progress! I did not take this self-care, Boujee concept seriously. But as my body begins to limit how long I can sit and work, and how my thoughts of business consume my world, I had to start looking into this idea of self-care, take it seriously and realize that I really wasn’t taking care of my inner self very well at all.
As a small business owner, I try to be everything to everyone, all the time. If I don’t take care of myself first, I won’t have anything left to give to others. 2019 was already a rough year on me due to some family business drama and that didn’t end until early March. And you know what came next…. COVID. While my tank was already low, by the end of 2020 it was complete empty. I’ve made some changes to help me replenish that tank, but I’ve also made changes to prevent it from fully depleting again.
Self-care simply means taking time for yourself to rest, reset, and recharge but also – and the part I did not originally understand – show compassion to yourself. If you can show compassion to yourself, allow yourself some grace, then maybe your tank won’t run empty so quickly. If we can keep our tank from reaching the bottom, recovering from a deadline sprint or other stressors might be easier to achieve.
Here is my story of self-care. I have regular massages, chiropractic, acupuncture, facials and those foo-fooy things that us girls like to do. I have a Peloton and try to work out regularly, but I’ve never been super consistent. I try to eat clean. This is all the normal self-care stuff. But the one area I was missing out on might be the most important piece of self-care – the inner self-care like self-talk and self-compassion. I was, and still am at times, really hard on myself. I just always feel like I can do better. My thoughts sound like this: Yes, this is good, but I know I can do better. I know we just killed it on that deadline, but I’m sure there is some kind of process improvement we can make. And my thoughts aren’t always that nice, the tone can be downright ugly. I’ve done the therapy and I know where it comes from but it’s still hard to fix. I have only recently truly become aware of how negative my self-talk is, now I’m working on fixing it. I wanted to write about this because I know, for certain, I am not alone!
For me, self-care has always been doing things for the external self: massage, yoga, exercise. I’m not going to stop those things, but I need to add to it the internal self: meditation, positive self-talk, compassion. These later areas are what is hardest for me, maybe those are the areas that are easy for you. Here is my 2021 plan for self-care: 2 hours dedicated to just me (right after feeding all 4 dogs) without thinking about work. I spend that time doing yoga, meditation for sure, and may add in exercise in some fashion. It’s is one day at a time, but I think it’s working. I will continue the weekly or biweekly massage and a weekly chiropractic adjustment.
In addition – I must stop and smell the roses. Or in my case, stop and acknowledge the achievements and accomplishments. I suck at doing this! I set a goal, crush it and without missing a beat ask, “what’s next?”. Where is the celebration for what I just did? The team, same with them. I don’t stop to acknowledge handling a deadline or new project, I just blaze on to the next. I have to stop doing this and celebrate the successes. I’ve yet to compile a list of ideas on how to improve this piece of me, but when I do, maybe I’ll write it out in a blog like this. Cheers to 2021, and please take care of yourself!
About Knight Home Care Financial
Knight Home Care Financial is a Texas-based accounting firm that provides innovative accounting solutions for providers in assisted living, home health, hospice care, and nursing facilities. By focusing solely on post-acute and long-term health providers, the firm is able to offer tailored services that meet and simplify the business and regulatory demands of the industry. For more information, visit www.knighthcfinancial.com.
