Some light reading...

Are you suffering from ‘Self-Care Overwhelm’?

As a reflexologist I am all about holistic health as much as I possibly can be! I love self-care, especially when it promises to become more balanced, intuitive or spiritual.

Mindful Foot Reflexology

However!

I also live in this uber busy, crazy society that is life and that is exhausting us and draining our souls every single day!

Our lives have become about the high expectations we set upon ourselves to achieve everything we possibly can. Career, parenthood, friendships, relationships, family, health goals, business, materialistic objects and the list goes on! This crazy carousel to succeed in every aspect then demands us to find balance and less stress from everyday demands.

Do you feel pushed and pulled in every direction of your life?

Do more of this and do less of that!

For me, overwhelm comes quickly. I identify myself as an HSP (highly sensitive person) so I feel overwhelm on a higher scale than others. But it often makes me think, aren’t we all feeling this heightened state of overwhelm, but we are numbing ourselves from it?

When overwhelm hits from our busy, over scheduled lives we require solace and balance. We seek out self-care practices which are now in abundance online and in practise.

I for one have numerous self-care practices, all of which I find fulfilling and balancing. However, my plethora of interests are exhaustive and not achievable all at once. Sometimes I find myself trying to do as many as I can to seek my own balance, but this always reaches a dead end of confusion and natural overwhelm. I am going around in circles! So, I ask myself:

‘What is the one thing I could do right now to take control of my self-care?’

I often have to stop myself from self-care overwhelm, mostly because I love to indulge so much and because I need it. But I have developed some parameters around my self-care, not to control it, but to ensure I am benefitting long term from the practice I love.

My own guidelines are:

1 – Sit and listen to your body and mind

Let your body and mind tell you what you need. Are you rushing around a lot? So, do you need to still your mind, rather than exert it more through exercise? Or are you feeling down and anxious about factors in your life. So maybe a walk in nature, seek out sun or the beach/river and be soothed by the water element.

2 – Choose one self-care practice

Especially if you are new to self-care. This could be a physical self-care practice or a mindfulness one. As above you will know what your body needs. Be really open to what presents itself to you and explore something that has caught your eye before. Ask friends and family, search the internet, read reviews and see what sparks your interest. There are a lot of classes you can attend the first one for free as a trial, there are apps that offer a 14 day trial.  Aim to stick at this practice long enough that you see the benefits.

3 – Practice something you love, or interests you

When you engage in something you love, your heart will tell you it is right for you. You will come away feel lighter, softer and you will smile naturally from the heart. You will feel it, so really listen to your body. Use your discernment naturally about what works for you and what doesn’t work for you. It’s ok to walk away from something that doesn’t gel with your body, mind, time or travel distance.

4 – Time and Distance

I have found that with a busy life, my time becomes an issue and maybe you are using too much travel time to get there. For example, I love to indulge once a month at the beauty salon, however from moving home 18 months ago I was still travelling to see my amazing beautician for 45 mins each way! Believe me she was worth it, but my time became precious as my business grew. It took a lot to change, but I now see a lovely young beautician I adore in my current home town, nice and close, 10-minute drive away. It was worth the change for my time and wellbeing.

5 – Surrender to the self-care and love yourself throughout the process

Let go of everything. Everything. Truly surrender to yourself. Your day, your future, your current troubles, your ego. Look within and you will find you. Grant yourself one hour of you time. Put the phone away, turn off the TV, pop the wonder woman shield out of view. Just you and your self-care practice. Let the self-care take over and guide your path. The more you surrender the more you will feel the benefits of your practice. If your ego creeps in (and it will), just tell it to go away, you are busy looking after yourself right now.

When you go within yourself, you will realise that we are all one, we are connected to the universe and the more you will live a fuller and more loving life.

I hope this helps you to feel better about self-care, to know that there are a lot of options out there and we only need one self-care practice to unwind. There is only one YOU, so take care of that one YOU, you deserve this attention and love.

To end my blog, I thought I would list the types of self-care practices I thoroughly enjoy. Some I 100% participate in for my daily wellbeing, some I indulge in when I can and others, I have an avid interest in and will explore these from time to time to educate and re-enthuse myself.

Here are the things I love to do to feel balanced in no particular order:

Currently I am enjoying yoga & meditation combined each day and then Tabata workouts 2-3 x a week. These are the ones that keep me uplifted right now. There’s a couple of core ones in there such as nutrition, a key element to my balance being gluten free, and I’m exploring Ayurveda in combination with this currently.

Just remember one to begin with, then once you become well practiced and feel the draw to another self-care practice then thoroughly indulge in this too! Enjoy!

To book a relaxing reflexology treatment please visit one of my treatment options. I would love to see you and help you with your wellness self-care journey.