Today was my first day back to work since I started my 10 day self care challenge , and like I had anticipated, it was a busy day! There wasn’t as much chaos as I would have thought, but I definitely was mentally tired after the day! It took me a while to relax my body after I got home, but a hot shower seemed to help!
Something that I have learned is a good strategic way for me to get things done while respecting myself, is pairing things together to be opportunistic. I have a wedding at the end of the month and I desperately needed new shoes and have been dreading the trip. Today on my way home I didn’t have any plans after work but to prep for tomorrow and rest…. So I ripped off the bandaid and headed to the shoe store! I like to do this with grocery shopping too and returning books to the library… also the gym and yoga! Anything I want to do or need to do (occupations!) work best when I can take advantage of the energy I have and just go. I guess that might be my little energy conservation trick! It sounds opposite of energy conservation, but it takes a lot of mental energy for me to prepare myself to do certain tasks and often this makes it impossible for me to get going! This way once I have the momentum of heading home from work I can stop for shoes, the library, groceries etc and then when I get home my momentum stops!
Anyways I was proud (and very thankful) to have found the perfect shoes for the wedding immediately ! I also got these cute boots in the photo for some fun date outfits because I never buy myself shoes! I’m not one for shopping as part of my self care but I must admit I did enjoy trying on shoes for once! I made sure to head right home to shower and make a nice dinner for myself without thinking about my full time job at all. I’m keeping this post short and sweet so I can snuggle my cats and read before I fall asleep, but I think this past 7 days of INTENTIONAL self care planning has been really great to come up with what works and what doesn’t work in terms of helping my mental health 🙂
Ideas for tomorrow:
It’s going to be a LONG day tomorrow with a full day of work and then driving past my house to have a client in the evening. My biggest self care piece tomorrow is going to be finishing up my charting as soon as possible and potentially ordering food so I can get it all done. This will be a big test to see if I can handle taking on a couple private clients so if the balance works it’ll be a positive! So grace and kindness to myself will be key!
In spirit of practicing grace and self compassion, what is one thing that makes you feel calm, safe and happy after a long day? I really anticipate a cozy blanket snuggle at an early bedtime for tomorrow 🙂
Be Your Own Sunshine 