We are fortunate in that we have lots of opportunities and an abundance of options available to us compared to 10 to 20 years ago. Because of technology and its advancements, we can work from anywhere, and connect without even being physically there.
The downside is that this created a lot of stress and confusion for us. When we share our lives digitally, and open up to more perspectives and opinions, it can add to our confusion.
There is no way to turn off the 24/7 newscycle, the “noise” of the internet, and protect ourselves.
That is why self-care is the most important area of our personal and professional lives. If we take care of ourselves, our lives become easy again.
Self-care is an essential part of our health-but lots of people don’t take the time to work on themselves. Then they find they have stress, tensions, and he;ath challenges.
Self-care, in simple terms, means taking care of both your inner and outer self.
The outer part of our body consists of our physical health, like the things we eat, how we move our body, and get exercise. The inner part consists of our thoughts, emotions, and the beliefs that are tied to our values systems.
Real Self-care is 4 dimensional: Physical, Emotional, Intellectual, and spiritual. You ignore one area and others get affected.
In order to start with selfcare, you first must ask yourself this question: “What is my purpose?”
This is the why you are here on this planet.
Once you have identified what your purpose is for being here, you can start to align your life around your purpose and mission.
Life falls into place and self-care gets taken care of–as you have identified your purpose of being on this earth.
Here are tips to target selfcare
Physically:
-Make sure to eat only when you are hungry, and eat less rather than over stuffing yourself.
-Eat 70% and leave 30% of your stomach empty so you are not over stuffed.
-Eat plant based whole food like fruits, vegetables, soups, smoothie, legumes, beans and natural food which are water, fiber and macro and micronutrient rich. Make these types of foods 70% of your diet and avoid Dairy, Meat and processed foods.
-Make sure you are eliminating and detoxing to keep your inner body clean and detoxed every day, not just once in a while.
Emotionally:
-Develop an attitude of gratitude.
-Keep a gratitude journal.
-Plan a time of solitude to think and meditate. Carve out at least 60 minutes a day just to do this. During this time, you can meditate, reflect on your events of life, and learn from good, great, bad and ugly things that happened. Sometime adversity and difficult time is the best time as it makes us stretch and change. This allows you to connect to your higher self.
-Learn to forgive others and yourself and make it a must–get help if you need help in this area so you are at peace.
Mentally-Intellectually:
– Learn new things, challenge yourself and do uncomfortable things. That is the only way you will grow. For me, the formula for happiness is to get 2G.
- First G is grow. Growth equals happiness.
- Second G is Give–the formula for living is giving. When we do not give, we become stagnant, just like if the river does not flow, things start stinking. Give your time, your talents, and your resources to help humanity and other causes with no string attached and no rewards.
- This will be the formula for happiness: Give and grow.
- Make it a must to attend events where you can go to learn and immerse yourself, read every day for 15 minutes to 60 minutes a day.
- Listen to YouTube, Ted Talks, or Podcasts when you are in the car of shower to input positive stuff in your intellect.
- Minimize the news as much as you can, as much of it is negative.
Spiritually:
-Spent time with nature.
-Go for leisurely walks or mediate first things in the morning or right before going to bed.
-Mingle and meet people who are spiritually inclined and are good hearted people.