Self Care- I have a love/hate relationship with this word!
In 28 years of parenting, I have finally learned that self-care is a good thing. For many years, I thought of self-care as a selfish thing. I had a very skewed view of self-care. After we became foster parents 5 years ago, self-care was mentioned frequently to me, but I still pushed it aside. As I parented my first set of 5 kids (biological) I rarely took time for self-care. I didn't really think I needed it. But, as we started parenting the second set of 5 kids (adopted) I quickly became overwhelmed with the trauma and all of the pieces that come with being a foster mom. I had to readjust my thinking of self-care, and then I had to learn to practice it.
Self-care comes in many forms. I learned that self-care looks different for each person. Some people enjoy time alone. Others need the connection of other people to feel that peace. I am one that really struggled with alone time. It actually brought me a lot of anxiety. Self-care for me was going to help out at church setting up the stage. When we had to shelter in place, self-care was very hard to come by. Especially with 5 kids at home needing my constant attention. I quickly realized that self-care was necessary and it would have to look very different than what I am used to.
It took me much of the shelter in place to figure out what worked best for me. I learned that eating right, despite the stress, is self-care. I also began walking. This was literally a game-changer for me. I take 30 minutes each morning to go out and walk. I put on some music, or a podcast and just go. I breathe in the fresh air. I look at the scenery around me. I clear my mind of all the things bothering me. I come back refreshed and ready to take on the day.
As I said in the beginning, I have a love/hate relationship with self-care. But I am learning to love it more than hate it.
What do you do for self-care? Do you struggle with self-care the way that I often do?
~Trish
