HH518-Self-Care:The Ultimate Act Of Giving

Melissa Deally: 00:00:00

Welcome back to another episode of health hacks where I continue sharing my favorite quotes with you, quotes to live by, and this is one that I created myself, because when I learned the lesson that self care was the most selfless act, I wanted a mantra to remind myself of that because I had been raised that giving to others is always more important, and you only look after yourself if there's any time left in the day, which, of course, as a mom with a career, there was never time left in the day. So when I was at health coaching school, and they said self care is the most selfless act, it was like a little kind of, you know, brain opening up and going, what's going on? I don't know, and I had to hear it again, and then I realized, oh my goodness, this is so true, and I love nothing more than teaching this to other people. And every time I say this quote, it gives me goosebumps. It really lands with other people, and I'm going to share it with you again here. And that is that self care is the most selfless act, because it allows you to show up and give the world the best of you instead of what's left of you, you get to give the people you love the best of you. When you look after yourself first, how often are we giving the people we love because they live with us, the worst of us, because we're at our wits end, we've run out of steam because we haven't been looking after ourselves, and they're getting cranky mom, Cranky spouse, etc, etc. That's no way to live. And so when I learned this, I was like, oh my goodness, I had it all wrong. And I actually started scheduling time in my calendar for me every single day, and it started off just in like little 15 minute increments because I was busy. However, what I discovered is that as I did this, I was actually more productive because it was allowing me to get out of my stress state. When we're in our stress state and falls are ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, your focus is being taken everywhere. You're all over the place. And instead, when you give yourself the time and you can come back to the other tasks that you have in a much less stressed state, you can focus and get it done, and then I would get be more productive so that I could give myself half an hour each day, etc, and then I talked to my husband and asked for more support from him in with the kids so that I could have a little bit more time in my day. And that wasn't negating from what he was doing, either. It was just a little bit of, you know, juggling our schedules to make it all work so that we could each care for ourselves and then care for the kids. Our girls were teenagers at that time, and teenagers love to push buttons, and I didn't realize how beneficial this was until one day I realized they're they're still pushing my buttons, and I'm not reacting, I'm not flying off the hammer. I'm not losing my shit over things that they're saying or their arguments, or whatever, because I'm in a completely different space. I'm in a place of self care, where I just have so much more energy, so much more patience in order to work with it, and could just respond to them and their questions go, Oh, that's interesting, that you think that way. What makes you say that and have conversations with them without getting triggered and upset about it myself, because I just had no energy left to deal with their arguments. Teenagers will always push our buttons. Is what they're designed to do, and it's when we are able to accept and acknowledge that and use it as a teaching moment instead of just flying off the hammer. That is really powerful. And so I ask you, what can you do in order to prioritize yourself, fill your own cup until it's overflowing and then you have the energy to support the other people in your life that you love, and they will love it because you will show up differently for them. You will give them the best of you instead of what's left of you. So write it in the chat below. What's one self care practice that you love to do or that you can commit to in order to recharge your mind, body and spirit, let me know.