Love Is In The Air…Or In The Hair? Practicing Self Care
It’s Valentine’s Day, and of course, everyone thinks that means Love Is In The Air.
Maybe it is for some! That’s awesome! For others it’s a lonely time. That’s not so awesome. If you are someone struggling from a serious hardship or depression, unexpected loss, deep mourning or grief, or unexpected tragedy, which are all valid life changing grief processes, this is not meant for you. While there may be some takeaways in this post, I don’t want to minimize the validity of a grief process, or perhaps the need for spiritual or emotional counseling. In those circumstances, that route would be their self care.
This post is for those who find themselves feeling generally tired, feeling unappreciated, or overworked. Maybe they are lonely. These feeling are common threads in conversations amongst women, whether they are work outside the home women, work at home women, mothers, women without children, or extended family caregivers. For these people, unless they have learned to be content in all circumstances, embrace life changes, to love or value themselves, get outside help for within the home, and appreciate their own company, there can be sadness and loneliness. For these people, I’m talking about self care.
What do you love about you?
What are your hobbies, food preferences, favorite physical, mental, or spiritual attributes? What do you love about your own character and talents? Who do you prefer to spend your down time with?
**Write a list of things you love about yourself, and celebrate them! Don’t wallow in your disappointments and sadness. Keep persevering in growth, skills, and empowering of yourself.**
This brings me to your self talk and your self care!
Loving yourself and how you were created is awesome!
Consider some things. How do you talk about yourself? How do you celebrate your daily or weekly or monthly accomplishments? What are things you do to care for yourself?
For instance:
- How often do you go to the hair salon?
- How many times a year do you love a massage or a manicure/pedicure?
- How many times a year do you take a personal day and go somewhere you enjoy?
- How often do you work on a hobby that you enjoy?
- How many books do you read each year?
- How often do you buy yourself a new sweater or pair of earrings, just because?
- How often do you make time to exercise?
- How often do you read your Bible, attend a Bible study with others, or go to your place of worship?
- How often do you arrange to meet your closest local friends for coffee or lunch?
Practice self care.
Put the things that help you care for yourself on the calendar, like an appointment, and don’t cancel!
It’s good for you and your physical, mental, and spiritual health!
You are worth the time!
For the past year, I’ve written about a health journey, weight loss, eating healthy, and a general quest for good health. This was an effort to practice self care.
However, I am struggling with gaps in my self care. I do lack face to face friend time with my local friends! I lack hobbies. My husband and I are work a holics! Sadly, we’re passing that over work ethic on to our children. It really is okay to take a break, (Deb) people!
Needless to say, there is quite a lot of tension as a result. For at least the past six months, maybe longer, I’ve been having major headaches, facial numbness, neck and shoulder pain, eye twitching, dizziness, major fatigue, and a fog brain. It’s super easy to chalk it up to being a busy homeschooling mom, having a small home based business, lots of recent traveling, and other things. I was scheduling regular massages, and I do treat myself to coffee out sometimes. As some point, though, coffee wasn’t cutting the fog brain, I’ve been less productive, struggling to stay focused on tasks, and obviously, a bit grumpy in my responses to others. I always say “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” but obviously, something was “broke” and it was time for a change.
Of course, the problem is that I had a fear that I was struggling with something chronic, like multiple sclerosis or Lyme disease. It’s super easy to want to stay in denial that I didn’t have something needing fixing or that it was “just because I….” My massage therapist, who is also a dear friend, very firmly told me that I might be prideful thinking I could keep handling it all myself, and that I needed to seek help. What I was doing for self care had ceased working.
Being super conservative about health care, I started with seeking the opinion of a chiropractor. He did an x-ray, ruled out bone spurs and super scary things like degenerative bone disease and tumors. He said my neck was inverted to the direction it ought to be–out of alignment, I guess is the verbiage. He said he could help, and that it is a blessing I didn’t continue to tarry in seeking a resolution.
Praise God! His first adjustment had my facial numbness and eye twitching symptoms gone! By the third adjustment, I had enough energy to drive myself and four children to Florida and back as the only driver, and to attend a two day business social media conference. I was not out of pain, but I could tell that I was improving.
2018 is the Year for Better Self Care.
I obviously needed help, and I’m thankful I sought it out. I continue to improve with my 2-3 time/week adjustments. Soon I will be in maintenance mode, rather than treatment mode. My pain continue to resolve itself.
This Valentine’s Day, vow to ascribe to love yourself enough for self care, no matter your circumstances. Drink that treat coffee, go out to lunch with a friend, go get the massage, take a walk in the woods, eat healthy foods and exercise, join a gym for accountability, do the hobby you love to do, play your piano, see your doctor or chiropractor! Just do it, however your self care looks. You will thank yourself.
You are valuable.
You deserve to love yourself with the talents, aspirations, gifts, and resources for which you were created.
It’s Valentine’s Day, and of course, everyone thinks that means Love Is In The Air.
Or,
Love Is In The Hair!
What is your hair color?
Is changing your hair color part of your self care?
It doesn’t happen to be mine, but I know for many ladies, experimenting with new hair color highlights, hiding the silver wisdom highlights, or even drastic color changes, is part of their self care, and they find it fun and exciting.
Accessories To Coordinate With Hair Color
There is a wide variety of color and style choices for “blinging up” Valentine’s Day, or any day of the year. This handy little guide helps choose what would look best in some hair colors.
I tend to coordinate more with my clothing and jewelry wardrobe, but I have noted that black clips can get drowned in a person’s hair who is very dark. There needs to be a balance and consideration of hair color. Sometimes a person does want her clip “muted” against her hair color. No matter what, the Lilla Rose products are still beautiful against all colors of hair and personal styles.
I love using clips, and purchasing them is a “self care” tactic for myself and for my girls.
Don’t miss out on the sizing video on my website but this handy guide helps determine a starting point for flexi clip sizing.
And, finally, maybe you want to reward yourself and try a clip out. The perfect time is with A Lilla Rose Sale!
Blessings,
Deb
This article is linked with an article on Sassy Direct.
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