I am ultimate peace when I’m in yoga class. For 50 minutes, I am inhaling and exhaling, completely ignorant to what is going on in the world. My phone is in my bag, on silent. It is there I’m giving myself the permission to breathe and the permission to just be — to be present, to be in the moment, to be relaxed.
I am going to be completely honest here. I have not been taking care of myself these days.
The last three months have been brutal on my physical and mental health. In August of this past year, my doctor switched my antidepressants, in which I had the side effects of losing my hair as well as my train of thought. In September, not only was I switched again to a different antidepressant, but I had to evaluate my relationships and friendships. My anxiety has increased, and over the last few months, my blood pressure (I have high blood pressure, thanks genetics) has spiked, causing an increase of my medications.
Once that happened, it caused me to take a step back to realize that I need to put myself first and do the things I need to do to improve my own physical and mental wellbeing. I needed to drink more water. I needed to add some healthy foods in my overall diet and eliminate the unhealthy ones. I also need to learn how to do the work, give myself grace, and allow myself the opportunity to learn that sometimes, just sometimes, I need to use my voice to either say, hey, I need a moment to breathe or hey, this isn’t working for me.
Needless to say, when my blood pressure spiked it was a huge wake up call for me.
Ever since the pandemic, I feel like the world has become more and more focused on wellness, although I’ve noticed that it has slowly bounced back into the way things were before it with the hustle and bustle. For me, wellness is fully rounded for both physical and mental health. I also believe that one aspect of it can impact the other.
I’ve begun to feel guilty about taking care of myself, which often happens when things begin to ramp up. As my calendar loads up with other tasks and events, I often forget the importance of the simple, obvious things for self-care, such as making time for a workout, drinking water, or hitting the mat for a yoga class.
Nowadays, self-care has changed so much for me. Self care has now evolved to: making sure I get at least 7,500 steps a day, drinking water, making sure I do workout, giving myself permission to rest and to just lie in bed and scroll, journal, make time for medical and mental health appointments, and allow myself some fresh air. All of those are simple, but can get lost in the shuffle.
I’ve preached since the start of this blog that self care is not selfish. I still stand by that. I just need to remember to actually listen to the words that I’ve written.
That being said, I hope that this post reaches someone who needs that reminder that self-care is something that needs to be added back into your routine.
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