BY TEREN HANZ
Conscious Living Practitioner
The World Health Organisation in 2019, announced Self-Care Month starting 24th June, ending 24th July to coincide with International Self-Care Day. The idea being to encourage the public to be responsible to care for themselves.
What better time to celebrate Self-care! Pandemic has been a great catalyst in teaching us lessons. Most of us know that we should be practicing self-care but when it comes to implementing it into our daily lives we struggle. But do we need really need a pandemic to remind us of to make time to care for ourselves? Perhaps we do. Our lives had become so hectic that we had no time to attend to our own needs. We had become free spirited – did what we liked at the spur of the moment even if it meant compromising our own needs. It is unbelievably true a lot of our anxiety-&-stress comes from the needs and demands of others. We are raised to think we should always put others before ourselves. In my own life, I had an overwhelming desire to help, to be nice-and-caring. I realised that while I was caring and rescuing others from hostile experiences in their lives, I was denying them the chance to face their own challenges, grow stronger and learn a lesson from doing so. At the same time, depriving my own self of the time to look after my own self.
Of course, living-in-the-moment, helping others, is a great trait but to keep the balance we must step-out-of-the-moment sporadically. This is truly the time to punctuate your life & think! What is it I need to do to promote my holistic wellbeing? How can I transform my own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual so I can reset myself to be healthy and do well professionally too? Believe-it-or-not, if the former 4 are in order, the latter inevitably starts mushrooming.
But how many of us have time? Truly, we’re very busy. On the virtuous side, all these 5 aspects of well-being are mutually interdependent. If you have done one, you have accomplished at least 3 others. Since I became ill and recovered, I have adopted conscious living approach; focus of such a process requires re-connecting the body-mind-soul. Therefore, re-energising your core is a fundamental aspect. For example, when I am driving to work, waiting at traffic lights I do my deep breathing – taking my diaphragm right in, holding my breath as long as I can then exhaling. Just 25 reps of these make me feel good and sets me for the day; I am content at work; I progress and feel life is worth living.
It is extremely important to value yourself, know your worth and have a healthy relationship with yourself as it produces positive feelings and boosts your confidence and self-esteem. Most of us take our physical health and wellbeing seriously, but not our emotional and mental health which can lead to all sorts of health problems, like anxiety, heart disease, insomnia and depression. Divorcing from our body is like rejecting it which leads to conflict within.
To enhance your health and wellbeing, stay committed – the more you take care of yourself, slower the aging process. Self-care is a personal matter; everyone’s approach will be different. Having a target will help you stay focused; it’s all about adjusting the mind-set. We do hear a lot of ‘mind over matter’ but I think, it’s the other way around too – ‘matter over mind’.
Finally, there is a great power in affirmation – feel blessed for what you have than what you don’t. These realisations are a steppingstone to conscious living and with this approach you can make the changes you want. Give yourself the fuel combination you need to be the best version of yourself. And remember, if there is a heaven then our body is the next big entity!
For more information on taking care of yourself, please visit my website : www.terenhanz.com