As I mentioned in a previous post, I often notice a common theme emerging across my appointments each day. So, despite talking with many people with different problems, I always learn something that we all share. For example, themes include gratitude, remembering ones value, worthiness, redemption, autonomy, self-compassion, etc. I muse how easy it has become to recognize common themes when I reflect daily. The common themes reveal the wisdom I receive through my work as a professional counselor. This week I learned that we should consider being more gentle and kinder to ourselves, take the pressure off ourselves. Life in 2020 is stressful enough: COVID-19 Pandemic, economic uncertainty, growing awareness of institutional racism against our black, LGBTQ brothers & sisters and the upcoming elections. We do not need to add to self-imposed stress by holding ourselves to high performance expectations, or overloading our schedules. When we do this, we are saying “No” to self-care, and saying “Yes” to every demand we face.
This is the first time I noticed a common theme for the week instead of a new daily theme. We all feel overloaded and overwhelmed just living in our current environment today. Recognizing that we cannot care for or love others better than we care for ourselves, let’s strive to practice being kinder to ourselves. Practice better self-care: eat more nutritious, portioned meals, take breaks throughout the day, get outside daily, and exercise a little each day. We all get 168-hours every 7-days. This is enough time to sleep 8-hours per day, eat 3 meals, commute, work 8-hours, rest, exercise, enjoy our relationships, take weekends off, if we are organized. Let’s all strive to say, “No” to business, demands and expectations so we can say “Yes” to our self-care first. Peace