Self-Care in Action - Mastering Physical Self-Care
We cannot add more days to our life but we can add more life to our days
Happy new week dear friend!
I hope you’ve had a restful weekend. As we continue our series on self-care, I want to start with the most common form of self-care and one that almost comes up when motion is made of self-care — Physical Self-care.
Physical self-care is one of the major pillars for many reasons not only because it’s neglect can be easily seen on the human body but because I believe its practice sets a solid foundation for the other pillars.
Physical self-care is the practice of improving physical health to enhance the quality of life. It involves, but is not restricted to, exercise, nutrition, hydration, and sleep. I remember some years back when I googled self-care and spa visits, shopping sprees were mostly what ranked highest, today, we know better that physical self-care is not a one-size-fits-all all and that it will look different to each of us.
I love running, walking and lifting weights but you might enjoy dancing and some aerobics or rock climbing, the most important thing is we are moving our bodies with the intention of keeping them healthy.
Even though we practice this for our external, research has shown that good physical self-care
enhances mental health and reduces stress
Improves cognitive function and memory
Helps in increased productivity
Helps to be resilient and manage pain better
An added bonus is better self-image and self-confidence.
Over time, I have learnt that it’s not so much the quantity of activities but also the quality, like too much exercising, can be detrimental to the female cycle, and research has shown that lack of sleep can cause Dementia later in life. These are a few of the concerns poor physical self-care raised for me and caused me to take a deeper look at some of practices.
I used to train everyday of the week and felt bad for missing a day, but not giving myself a rest day for my body to recover ws causing more harm than good, so I cut it to 6, 5 and now just 4 days with adequate rest days in-between and a variety of exercises as well. That was the same discovery I made with my sleep, as I wasn’t getting my 7-8 hours a night, making me tired quickly and not having the full recovery time after my training.
After a few scares, I now listen and know my body much better. I also have reevaluated my routines to come up with one that fits into my current lifestyle much better. Yes, that was another realisation I needed to get used to that as we grow our needs and priorities change. Here is how a typical day could look for me and even though I add in some other rituals I will focus on the physical self-care aspects.
5:45 am Wake up and do my devotion and meditation
6:20 am Head for the gym for a 45-minute workout, shower, and eat breakfast.
8:00 am Start work.
12:00 Lunch walk
20:45 Wind down and journaling
21:00 Sleep
A lot of activities goes into the 1 hour 40 minutes before 8:00 am but a lot of prep is done the night before like my breakfast. I get to eat a nutritious breakfast because I do my meal preps the night before.
Your day can look different from mine, as in your exercise can be after work or in the middle of the day. Your meditation or mindful moments can be in the evening or during the day. Once again, the most important is you find the time to incorporate these practices. I know for a fact that quality sleep for me now is a must and the days I cannot get a good night’s sleep, I practice self-compassion, making sure to take it easy during the day. Life happens and things get in the way of plans so we need to be open and flexible to adjust.
As we start a new week can I encourage you to think about how you physically take care of yourself and if there are any adjustments or improvements to make then start now. We have one shot at this thing called life and it is our responsibility to make it worth living. I’d love to hear your thoughts about physical self-care so do share these in the comments.
Have a great week ahead.
Love & light
Sheila Daisy