Cardiac disease is the #1 cause of death among women. As women, we’re notorious for overworking and pouring into everyone else, prioritizing others, and leaving ourselves for last. We’re taught to put our partner first, our children first, and even our careers first. None of those include putting ourselves first. I’m absolutely guilty of doing the same thing during my life as well. While I was well aware of how important self-care is, I didn’t fully understand what self-care is.
We often see self-care described as a hot bath, a vacation, a nice cup of coffee, and more. Those all fall under self-care, but self-care is so much more. Self-care is honoring our emotions, standing firm in our boundaries, knowing when to rest our bodies, eating nutritiously, honoring our intuition, and more. These are the often overlooked parts of self-care. I would make time every couple of weeks for a hot herbal bath. I would treat myself to a nice, fancy cup of coffee every so often. What I didn’t do was enforce my boundaries, rest when I needed to, honor my emotions, etc.
So when the doctor said I had heart damage and kidney damage from high levels of stress over a prolonged period of time, I was floored! My thoughts went to my kids. What would happen with my kids if something happens to me? I cried and spent the weekend in bed feeling a whole slew of emotions. That’s when I decided I needed to implement changes in my life to try and repair the damage. I made the conscious decision to make myself a priority over any other relationship. When a plane is going down, we’re told to put on our masks first. So I applied that same theory to my life. In order for me to be the best version of myself I could be for my kids, I had to be the best version of myself for me first.
Those changes didn’t come without pushback from those in my life who were used to the old version of me. The changes also didn’t come overnight. It took some time for me to implement and enforce these changes in my life, and to be okay with the fact that not everyone will be happy with these changes. I had to come first, for the sake of my own health and wellbeing.
I also spent some time talking to my kids about what was happening with my health. I reassured my kids that I was going to do everything in my power to take of myself. Since then, that’s what I’ve been doing. Many things in my life have changed, and overall I feel much better. I’m still healing in my body, and my kids have learned to respect my time when I let them know I need time and space for myself. Self-care isn’t something we learn overnight, but it’s a lifelong lifestyle choice we learn to implement, and it looks different to each one of us. Self-care is about caring for yourself and honoring yourself as the amazing being you are.
How do you implement self-care into your life? I’d love to hear how you incorporate self-care. As always, feel free to comment and share.
