Self Care

Defining/describing self care through the following areas: 

MIND; BODY; SOUL (or spirit) and SOCIAL (or emotional).

As I have matured/got older/grown up (depends who you ask!) my self care, and opinion of self care has changed. Throughout secondary school I was playing a lot of competitive sport, so the by-product was a healthy body, even if that was not the intended focus. This did bring with it lots of injuries and I lacked the awareness and understanding to take my time, recoup and rehabilitate the injury and would rush back into competition as early as possible. Due to the high demands of sport, little time was left for school work, so often sleep was sacrificed as I would work late into the night to complete assignments.

This pattern continued through University, until I went travelling. There was no significant event that made me sit and say 'Ahhhh, I MUST do that!", but the culmination of experiences deepened my awareness of a need to actually take care of myself, and not just my body. I do recall a conversation with my best mate, Martin, who was never one to pull punches, and he basically stated I was burning the candle at both ends.

http://aaronsagoge.blogspot.ca
I thought about what he meant by this, and for once he made sense!

Body

My degree was in Sports Science, and as a PE Teacher I understand the need to be physically active. Over the years the sports have changed, but now perhaps more than ever I understand the importance of rest. If my body is tired, I now know it is OK to miss a day at the gym. The rest day is as important as the workout day. I also ensure I get enough sleep each night and when I do get an injury, I get it checked, rest, rehab and wait until the injury has healed before returning to activity.

Social/Emotional

I love to socialize and have a beer (I blame my British genes) and am not a person that needs solitude to charge my engine. Sometimes quite the opposite. A night at the pub with friends, telling stories or playing a quiz 'fills my cup' much more than relaxing at home. I do, however, love playing with the cats at home, with one of them in particular fulfilling my cuddle cup.

(Photo:Selfie:A Verbal Meow of consent was given by Bella)

Soul/Spirit

I LOVE travel and as cliched as it sounds, it fuels my soul. Being in a place (that I preferably can't speak the language) and experiencing new sights and sounds rejuvenates me far quicker than chilling at home. To be honest, I find it difficult to explain. I often (purposefully) drift off into a day dream, thinking about locals I have observed on my travels, and think about them going about their daily lives as I sit at home, getting on with my life. I can talk 'travel' for hours, and love hearing peoples stories and adventures.

Mind

I do feel that this is by far my weakest area of self care. My creative/active mind gets 'fired' or 'worked' through playing the drums, and doing photography, but I know I do not give enough time to mindfulness/meditation or rest. I have practiced yoga in the past, perhaps not enough to become spiritually satisfied from a yoga session, and until the past few weeks have never even thought about mindful practices. After our session 3 weeks ago, I went home and did some more reading/youtubing about mindfulness/meditation and downloaded this app.

(photo credit:apple store)

I tried it out, and did my first ever 6 minute meditation. I did find it difficult to concentrate, and it is definitely a skill I must work at.

In summary, I feel that self care is discovering what you need as an individual physically, socially, emotionally and mentally, and ensuring you work towards meeting your own needs to maintain a healthy lifestyle balance.