Your Bag is Empty
When you’re busy trying to please your boss at work, keep your family happy and healthy and stay on top of friends' weddings, birthdays and showers, it’s easy to forget that the body and mind that are making all of this happen need a little bit of attention too.
Self care has become an increasingly important topic as our generation attempts to pack more into our lives than ever before. Combine increasingly outside-of-work-hours connectivity with never-ending FOMO from social media, and our bodies and brains are left exhausted and screaming for attention and downtime.
Statistics back this up. Stress levels in the US are at an all time high, Americans are gaining weight at an alarming rate, and diseases afflict people at younger ages than ever before (1). We are stretching ourselves thin and trying to do it all, and often the first thing that gets "bumped" is what we actually need most: time for self care.
It's time we think about self care differently
Your body and mind are the foundation for everything in your life, and self care is time spent making that foundation strong and sturdy. It's not pampering. It's not indulgent. It's certainly not selfish. It's investing in yourself for both the present and future.
Science backs us up
Most of us grew up believing that the more we sacrificed, the more success we would find. Modern research now tells us that we had it all wrong.
Science is now telling us that self care actually plays a major part in our success. Here are three examples:
Taking breaks from your work to enjoy nature or laugh with close friends has been shown to increase cortical attention and decrease your cortisol (stress hormone) levels (2,3). Hello again to creativity, goodbye "I'm so stressed I just want to finish it!"
Burnout is pervasive in the US workplace (I see you nodding your head), but I bet you didn't know that it is weighing heavily on our earnings. According to this study, "Americans who take 11 or more vacation days are more likely to have received a recent raise or bonus." Read that line again when you think you're too busy to unplug and take a vacation!
Lack of sleep can also affect how well you think, react, work, learn, and get along with others. Although it's tempting to stay up late answering emails or finishing that brief, it's likely you'll finish it faster and more effectively with a solid night's sleep under your belt (4).
Self care, served fresh
Self care can be different things for different people. It all depends on how you personally recharge your batteries and what you need more of in your life. Sometimes, it's a solid 8 hours of sleep and a massage on a Sunday afternoon. Other times, it's laughing like crazy while burning the candle on the other end with your family and friends or booking that trip that you've always wanted to take. It’s just a matter of finding out what replenishes you so that you can put your very best foot forward.
While there isn’t a one size-fits-all way to practice self care, the first step to getting it right is understanding that it isn't the cherry on top of a well-lived life, and is instead a foundational enabler for all that you want to accomplish. There will be times where you will feel conflicted about pushing back or saying no to other competing priorities, but hopefully now, armed with some science, you have the confidence to be bold and do you.