Parents, this one is for you…..
As we begin a new year, the topic of New Year’s Resolutions always come up. If you are anything like me, you always make one, even though you know you’re going to forget about it, get busy or disinterested….And what do you know…..February comes around and you have forgotten what your resolution even was!
Resolutions are hard to maintain, especially if you are trying to make a big change…..but they always reel us in with the promised freshness of a new year.
I say all of this to say, I’m sorry. I have a New Year’s Resolution for you (and for me).
It’s called self care. You most likely have heard of it, it’s everywhere nowadays. Doctors and Mental Health Professionals have recognized the need for moments to destress to cope with a stressful life. However, self care is first and foremost taking good care of yourself. Sounds simple, but if we all stop to think about it– do we really care for ourselves as well as we take care of other people?
As parents, or as adults in general, we are encouraged to be selfless and feel guilty when we are not. Too often we get busy thinking of other people…..thinking about what our kids need, what our boss wants, what that person at the checkout counter thought of us, what other family members need….the list is endless.
This is a mental load that we carry with us all of the time. When it is not addressed it is compounded into toxic stress. Toxic stress is just that, it is toxic. It is detrimental to your physical health, mental health, emotional health, relationships….the list is endless.
When we take time to intentionally care for ourselves we take our mental load off for a minute, unpack the unnecessary things from it and recharge.
Contrary to popular belief, self care is not simply getting your nails done, buying something you really want, or sleeping in. These are all really nice things, but they can be short lived and financially stressful. To truly practice self care, we have to take steps to minimize our stress, recharge our purpose, and check in with our emotional state.
This is hard to do in a busy life. Tricky emotions, stressors and concerns are put on the back burner, but they never go away- do they? We lug them around daily. Sometimes the weight is noticeable and sometimes it’s not.
For the next couple of weeks I will be exploring the concept of self care. I will research and provide tools for us to start 2018 off with self awareness and compassion. I hope you’ll tune in, but if you fall off the bandwagon after a week….no judgment! It’s here if you need it 🙂
Created by Grace Jackson, Social Work Intern
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