Self-Care: Prioritizing Your Needs

Maybe it’s the season, but I’ve noticed a lot of time spent and conversations had is around the theme of combating energy depletion through self-care. I know you all have been hearing about this on trend phrase. You might think self-care seems like a “duh” concept or you might think it is completely unattainable. Who has time for a full spa day or a weekend away? Of course we would feel more energized with that kind of time! Let’s instead think of self-care as the daily, small moments we can choose to prioritize our own needs.

First, why is it so important to prioritize our needs? Well, when we start noticing that we feel increasingly depleted either each day or by the end of the week, that is our body speaking to us that something needs to shift. Energy depletion is detrimental to our ability to regulate our emotions, challenge anxiety, maintain focus, make sound decisions, and our overall wellbeing.

Self-care looks different for every individual. We all have a different baseline in regards to when our energy starts to become depleted. We also all have different variables that either give us energy or take it away. For some, spending time with friends re-energizes the Self; however, for others, it might take away some energy. So in order to determine what your own self-care looks like, we need to first recognize what variables fill us up, and which ones take away.

Some attainable, realistic ideas for self-care might look like the following:

• Saying “no” OR saying “yes”
• Waking up before the rest of your family OR sleeping in
• Going to the bathroom BEFORE you go into your child’s room when you hear them crying
• Asking for a break
• Making a phone call to a friend
• Working out our body OR resting our body

What are some ways you listen to your body in order to care for your Self and not feel so depleted?

Written by Kelly Ciapetta, MS Ed., LPCC

 

Photo credit: Daria Shevtsova from Pexels