Personal Self Care – Top Priority for Long Term Health
So you’re concerned about your health. You don’t drink or smoke. You eat healthy and hit the gym four days a week, but what do you do for your mental self care? Are you taking time to reflect, slow down and spend time on things for you?
Too many of us are concerned about our over all healthy but we don’t take time out of our busy lives for us. Sure going to the gym is for us, but it becomes some what of a chore after a while. What about a hobby? Reading? Writing? Doing things just for you to get your mind off of it.
A friend of mine was stressed all the time, work and family issues were getting him down and he just didn’t know what to do. I suggested he pick up a hobby. Something he could take some time to do outside his every day life besides work and chores.
He decided he was going to learn guitar. It was something he’d been wanting to do since he was a teenager and had never granted himself the time to do so. He bought a guitar course online and an inexpensive guitar from a local music store. The course took about a week to arrive and he vowed to himself that he’d spend 30 minutes each day just on this for himself.
The first few days were tough. He first felt guilty that he wasn’t working or doing something around the house. Then he would get frustrated and feel angry with himself saying “what am I doing this for, nothing is going to come of it I should be doing something productive”. Then slowly but surely he began to feel better. He was getting the steam out of him after a long day and he started to feel less stressed. His wife began saying he seemed like he was in a better mood all the time, and he didn’t respond so harshly to things that used to frustrate him.
It’s amazing that learning the guitar could do this for a person. Learning guitar may not be your thing but think about something that could produce similar results for you. taking care of yourself is a major part of leading a healthy life, and I don’t just mean hitting the gym.