Mama Care Monday's: Women’s Wellness via Self-Care; mind, body, and spirit
9:00:00 AM
I am super excited for this weeks MamaCare Monday post because it is directly parallel to the new workshop series my brand Myrtle&Flossie, is doing for Jersey City Heath and Human Services. I will be doing different workshops around the city that pertain to different aspects of women wellness and postpartum care. Getting a chance to address those topics that never really get spoken about and share information from my new mom experience, postpartum recovery and overall health journey. One of my favorite subjects "treating yourself right" making sure to take time out for you, the first workshop that I will be giving tomorrow is all about Self-Care mind, body, and spirit, providing tips and DIY on creating a "self care tool-kit when life can get overwhelming and stressful and you might need some extra guidance and steps to get through. www.myrtleandflossie.com
Self-care is an essential social work survival skill. Self-care refers to activities and practices that we can engage in on a regular basis to reduce stress and maintain and enhance our short- and longer-term health and well-being. Self-care is necessary for your effectiveness and success in honoring your professional, and personal relationships. There is no “one-size-fits-all” self-care plan, but there is a common thread to all self-care plans: making a commitment to attend to all the domains and components of your life. Mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. To develop your self-care plan, you will identify what you value and need as part of your day-to-day life (maintenance self-care) and the strategies you can employ when or if you face a crisis along the way (emergency self-care).
I can't stress enough (no pun intended) how essential it is to make time for yourself however not just saying it, but actually doing it. Even if its for a nanosecond, take the moment, time, second, or minutes to carve out a little space for yourself to be still, quiet, meditate, rest, relax, and release. Your overall health truly depends on it. The latest studies from the medical profession have linked stress as one of the top killers and catalyst to a whole host of illness and diseases that stem directly from not managing stress well and being extremely overwhelmed. In our fast paced go,go,go, society in my personal opinion and speaking from experience, I think its imperative to have a type of system in or special go-to place to implement when times get rough. Due to not managing my stress properly and a recent health scare from my Doctor, I have had to rearrange completely how I have been handling things in my life and get disciplined with my self realizing that my overall health; mental physical and emotional is important and should be valued. You can have all the money in the world, be beautiful, adorned and admired by others, however if you are not healthy and die before your time, what does it matter? Without health, none of these things are possible and/or can not be sustained.
What I have started doing lately is creating a "Self-Care Toolkit". As stated above, it is my go-to step by step ritualistic practices that allows me to gain some perspective when times get rough and get me through stressful moments. I have Spa-day Sundays where I give my self at home DIY treatments of facials, scrubs, and herbal bath detox. Every morning I read from the "good book" ACIM (A Course in Miracles) reading the lesson for the day and repeating it to myself throughout the day when I find myself in heighten situations and/or get triggered. I have recently beefed up my physical fitness game by teaching African dance class twice a week which keeps me motivated to workout and take other fitness classes during the week. Lastly, I have really been attempting the art of Mindfulness, being totally engaged only in the moment. I must say, this one is definitely harder than the others, my mind tends to wander and I always find myself extrapolating far into the future when tomorrow hasn't even happened yet. However like most things in life, practice makes better. I encourage you to take some time and create your own rituals and practices to get you through, whats in your tool-kit? http://jessicadimas.com/whats-self-care-toolkit/
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Remember mamas, invest in yourself so that you can continue to invest in others. Until next Monday.........
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