Summer Self Care

I found this 30-day summer self-care countdown on Pinterest recently and I really liked it.  It’s from the website Blessing Manifesting.    She has alot of fun, useful tools to practice self care including this July Self-Care Checklist.  Summer can relieve certain stressers of getting all the kids ready for school and packing lunches, but it also brings with it “the kids are home all summer, what do I do with them?” and “I need a break from shuttling them from camp to camp everyday.”

For me, my stressors are different.  I have an 18-year old ready to go to college, so we’ve been attending orientations, signing papers, shopping for dormroom stuff and the internal preparation I have been going through for the day we leave her at school and we go home as empty nesters.  Check back with me in August on that one.

The self-care tips from Blessing Mansifestion, focus on the this:

• What do you need right now?  A nap or to go out to dinner so you don’t have to cook.  This could be anything, but you have to ask yourself this.
• How is your body feeling?  Are you tight in your shoulders, is your lower back sore, etc…
• What boundaries do you need to enforce?  Are you saying “no” to the things you don’t want to do?  Communicate.
• Have you taken care of basic needs today?  Are you drinking enough water.  When was the last time you had a meal that was healthy and delicious.  Do you need an afternoon nap?
• What are you holding on to that you need to let go of?  Are you a member of the Not-Good-Enough Club?

My big take-away is practicing grace on myself.  Speak to ourselves in a way we would want others to relate to us.  Reframe a situation — instead of big goals like “I am going to work out five days this week” how about trying “I am going to focus on taking my vitamins everyday and drink more water.”  That’s doable.  Once you achieve that success, move to the next thing on your list.  Give yourself a summer vacation from demands and expectations and just try to enjoy the next five weeks before the madness ensues.  Maybe by then you’ll have a some healthier habits in place that will make easing into the school year a little easier.