The Self-Care Plan: Establishing A Plan (Part 1)

You can listen to this podcast episode here: https://youtu.be/SazIorpNnEY

In this new age of promoting self-love, self-care, and self-confidence, many people are clueless about beginning the journey. If they have encountered experiences in their past dealing with mental, emotional, verbal, or physical trauma, then starting a self-care process can be challenging. 

In 2015 I was introduced to the concept of self-care. However, I only had a surface-level understanding of this word. As years began to pass, I began to dig deeper into the self-care phenom. My self-care journey was triggered by the loss of my two-year-old daughter. For several years, I was going through so many mental transitions I had no idea what I was dealing with until later on.

After seeking answers concerning my mental health, I was confronted with the idea of suffering from PTSD, GAD (generalized anxiety disorder), mood swings, and anger issues. When I was able to come to the realization of how I internalize my trauma, this is when I knew it was time to go deeper into my self-care journey.

The first step was to come to terms with how my mental health affected every area of my life. I knew it was time to create a self-care plan that reached beyond bubble baths, manicures, pedicures, and shopping. My self-care path began by attacking the deep-rooted mental issues. 

In 2015, I began to create a self-care plan that has evolved over time. Now I know that my mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, social/relational, and financial self-care is a top priority.

Below I am going to list ways you can start establishing a self-care plan for yourself. 

1. Acknowledge the past traumatic experiences. When you go deeper to identify the experiences in your past that have an effect on your adulthood, then you can gain clarity on where to begin.
2.  Define what self-care means to you. We all define things differently according to our personal life experiences. Spend time to assess what does self-care mean to you.
3. Create a self-care plan. Once you collect the details of what your self-care looks like, you can establish a self-care plan. 

*In this blog and podcast series, I will be writing about starting your mental, emotional and spiritual self-care plan.* 

All or Nothing: Betting On Yourself

You can listen to this episode here: https://youtu.be/rIEIXqquN-A

The new year is here, and we all have so many things we want to accomplish; however, 2021 is a year for me to go all-in on what I desire. I often found myself giving one hundred and ten percent to my family, friends, romantic relationships, and career. Yet, I was always short-changing myself when it came to my life aspirations.

I would spend a lot of time doubting my efforts to succeed and found excuses for not living the life I wanted to live. I distracted myself with helping other people accomplish their dreams while I kept putting my life on hold. Overall, I became dissatisfied with the results in my life. And I realize I had to stop sitting on the sidelines wishing things would be different and get the gumption to create the life I believe I deserve.

After 2020 I realize how important it is to take intentional steps to design a life I enjoy. We spend so much of our time making others happy, but we don’t invest the same effort in our happiness. Your life’s joy and fulfillment should always be a priority.

So I decided that this new year is the start of me going all-in and believing in my potential to produce the extraordinary life I was meant to live. When you invest in yourself, the rate of return will always yield success.

Below are three ways you can bet on yourself and increase your self-worth:

• Say yes to yourself. Saying yes to yourself is having the courage to design a life that makes you feel good and purposeful (finding purpose in the life you are creating).
• Let go of split energy. When you are spreading yourself thin, you produce split energy meaning your actions and words are not congruent. When you commit yourself to everyone else dreams, you self-sabotage your efforts to invest in your own life desires.
• Slow Down. When you take a moment to slow down and pace yourself you can get clarity on what direction you want to go. (slow and steady wins the race…..lesson from The Tortoise and The Hare an Aesop Fable)