SELF CARE SUNDAY

I THINK I'VE DISCOVERED A NEW PASSION.

Everybody's heard the phrase "self care" by now. You probably rolled your eyes when you said those two words together. Social media has been saturated with the term for months now. Even I'm kind of over it. What I'm NOT over is the concept of taking care of ourselves in order to be the best we can be in this life.

A few months ago I started to become really unsettled in my life. My son was adjusting to high school life, spending more time with friends and my husband was thriving in his career and in the best shape of his life. With my family doing so well, I was really able to spend time reflecting on my own happiness. Not just the temporary fix when I had a day off and treated myself to a long walk and an overpriced coffee, but a real deep look at myself. What I saw was a woman about to turn 50 years old, working 40 hours a week at job that took more out of her than she received. Some days I would not even want to talk to my family for a solid hour after being home.

My google history search looked a lot like this:

Mid life crisis...
Career pivot...
How to be happy in your job...
Bloggers over 50 making money...
how to grow your own food...

I stumbled upon some solid advice that said, "if you're unhappy, do something nice for someone else". It made sense to me. I started to plan a get together with some friends, with the strict rule that no one was to show up with food or wine or a hostess gift. I wanted them to have a nice time focussing on themselves. Planning the theme and gathering all the supplies and little take away treat bags made me feel SO GOOD. It was on a Sunday morning, there was 7 of us and we talked about how each of us practiced (or needed to practice) self care before heading to our stations to start on our vision boards. My guests chattered away over snacks and mimosas, each creating their own little piece of art in the process.

After I said my last goodbye, I felt a sense of gratitude that I hadn't felt in a long time. With the help of my co-workers, I began to plan another "Self Care Sunday" event, this time for some customers at work. My friends at work each helped in their own way, from proofreading the invitation, to brainstorming over the details. The time leading up to the event did not even FEEL LIKE WORK, and the event was a huge success.

The best feeling was a couple of days later, when one of the guests came back in to thank me for giving her the time to hang out and create. She said she felt so great afterwards and would try to continue to take a little time for herself each week. And that's when it hit me, I needed to find a way to do this on the regular.

Thanks for reading,

Nikki

Pin It