Self Care September Week One: Baby Steps

The first week of September has come and gone. The older you get the faster time moves. I started last week ready to do some good work! Until the three day weekend ended and I had some roadblocks at work. My week didn’t go as planned but I am very much committed to seeing this process through. I had to take a look at how I was going to incorporate self care into my week without overwhelming myself.

I took baby steps into this self care thing last week. With the things I ran into I wasn’t going to be able to dive feet first into my multitude of things at once. I want to get the most out of this but I also must make it practical for my life; and what’s practical for me are lists. Lists are my thing. When I feel like things are just all over the place and I am doing a whole lot of things but not really getting much accomplished I like to write everything down. Don’t front, you know there is a warm feeling you get when you cross off something on that To- Do list.

But not only did I want that warm fuzzy feeling of getting ish done but being able to visually see the three or so self care “To- Dos” that I wanted to focus on made it seem manageable even during the chaos of my week. Nothing that I did was anything earth shattering but simply some things that I have let fall by the wayside. Things on my list included:

• Increasing my water intake: I wanted to drink at least 72 ounces of water a day. This isn’t my ultimate goal because when I am at my best I drink more than that but I have gotten completely off track. I wanted to get my habit started again. When I drink water like I’m supposed to I genuinely feel a difference in my body. I have a bad habit of drinking a bunch of my calories and that is never good. I’m really trying to get my skin and hair to flourish more as well. I hit my goal majority of days last week.
• No eating out: This was not only for physical reasons but September is doubling as No Spend September for me and eating out is included in that. This entire summer I have done so well with my spending – practically not spending much at all. Budgeting and becoming better with my money is something that I am really working on and the last few weeks I got really lax with myself in this area. I wanted to get back to my focus and make sure that I am not doing so much unnecessary spending. I did have food outside of what I cooked but it was free so no money came out of my pocket lol.
• Take care of business: This might sound like “well duh – you are an adult you should always be taking care of business.” Which is true yes and I do, but we all know that sometimes we put off things a little too long. I am a procrastinator to the fullest – I get it honest from my father, however we always get things done. I want to be more cognizant of this and stop putting things off that can and need to be done in the present – like sending a message about a collaboration or not waiting a week to get my vehicle registration done just because I had the grace period (oops!). Ironically the thing that the King of Procrastination drilled into me since I was younger was to “never put off something for tomorrow that you can do today because tomorrow may never come.” See dad I do listen to you – sometimes lol.
• Have “me” time: I was the only child for eleven years. When I was little I hated being alone. I always wanted either company over, to be with my cousins and family or to be out at a friends house. It took me a long time to appreciate my alone time. Now I cherish it and make it a point to have it when I can. If I don’t have plans with friends already in place for the weekends sometimes I am completely okay with that. There is nothing like being in your own space enjoying your own company. Of course I don’t always want that – I do like to be social but it is nice. For the first Saturday all summer I was able to take my time getting out of bed and spent my afternoon at home watching movies. It is critical to take time to check in with yourself and be comfortable with being alone sometimes.

These are the things I committed to for last week. Granted these were not things that people probably think of when self care is mentioned but I want this month to explore all the ways we can practice self care. Some things are not glamourous but they are things that will make you feel or do better. I didn’t spend any money really – outside of my necessities – on incorporating these self care practices.

Overall I did a pretty good job. I will say that I feel like I did my self care last week out of wanting to make sure I completed the task that I set out for myself instead of really diving into to make this a growing experience. I want to not only be committed to doing this but being all into how making self care a priority in my life can really shake some things up in a good way. Going into this week I am making an effort to be more present in what I am doing, not just going through the motions of check something off of my list. I will continue with what I started the first week and incorporate new pieces as the weeks go on. I want self care to be a part of my lifestyle in many different ways and not be something I do for just a month.

How is #SelfCareSeptember going for you so far? Comment down below.