No, it is not selfish to take care and love oneself! The opposite. To not care for oneself is creating toxins in ourselves through stress; both body and mind stress. Who do you think has the biochemistry to be calm, kind and caring; the stressed person, both body and mind, or the calm and detoxed person?
Make a plan on how to take care of yourself every day. Small things. If it is hard for you and you get stuck, think of someone you love and do it for you, as you would for them. This is how a day of caring for myself could look like for me:
- Start the day with a Yoga, breathing and meditation; only a few minutes, or longer if I have time
- Read daily quotes that enrich me
- Move my body by exercise for at least 30 minutes and get to places by walking as much as possible
- Allow myself nature, to be outdoors and breathe fresh air, even if I only find a spot of grass or one tree to lay my eyes on
- Eat clean vegan food, and loads of greens, in a calm environment
- Eat when I’m hungry, stop eating when I’m full
- Allow myself to rest; a bit of silence, a nap, a stroll, listen
- Allow myself to think and explore
- Meet let myself talk with people, live or through devices
- See my loved ones and cuddle
- Allow myself to say no to exhausting events and people
- Accept others help, affection and care, and be grateful for it
- Help and care for others and the globe, for no other reason then because I can
- Bedtime at 10-11 pm, up 6-7 am,
- Feel trust, hope and gratitude, and pray with faith in Me and all that is beyond me to understand
- Know that people do what they have been taught to do and as much as they can do with what they are
- Trust the future Cristina and her capability to solve problems
- Don’t beat myself up when I don’t do all this…
What self care is not; to beat myself up for doing or being ‘wrong’; to watch yet another cooking program instead of cooking myself; to think I understand it all or even understand myself; to hang out with draining people and go to un-stimulating events in shoes that hurt; to blame others and think they could do better; make too many plans or too few; breath toxic perfumes and color my hair with dangerous chemicals; eat too much food or drink too much wine and to forget I did; to stay up answering emails even if I’m way past bedtime; see violent movies or news without meaning; push myself to do too hard exercise because others do; say yes to obligations I dread and expect a thank you; smoking; fighting against my hunger to look like the woman on the billboard; buy things that I don’t need; feeling discouraged and self pity; caring for others by exhausting myself; stop communication by silence or anger; be quite and look the other way; not trusting my future self, others and the universe; believe we understand it all; believe we all function and think in the same way…and beating myself up for making the mistake of doing all of this!
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