Welcome to Motivational Mondays!
First things first, what is Motivational Mondays? Just like it sounds, to motivate, to empower, and to encourage you on the first day of a fresh week. I don't know about you but Mondays can be a drag for me, so sometimes words of encouragement and positivity are helpful to start my day off right.
Motivational Monday: Self - Care is a MUST
Self-care is something that is super important and essential for everyone. By a show of comments how many of you are amazing at taking care of others but are horrible when it comes time to taking care of yourself? I know I am!!!
Self-care was and still is something that I struggle with doing. So many of us on one hand are caretakers of our friends, family, or it's our job to do. While on the other hand we just generally love to help others.
What they don’t tell you is that caring for other people, no matter who they are, can be extremely taxing and even sometimes detrimental to your health. One thing that I had to learn over time is that I am no good to anyone if I am empty.
One quote that I will always remind myself is one from Iyanla Vanzant, she said, " My cup runneth over, what's in the cup is for me, what runs out of the cup is for everybody else."
You can not give away something that you don't have. Joy, Peace, Understanding, Faith, God, if you don't possess these things yourself how are you going to help people in need? How are you going to bless me when you're broken, or cheer me up when you're depressed yourself?
I think that the number one reason so many people get so overwhelmed and overworked when caretaking for others is that they ignore the warning signs.
Think about “self-care” like you would getting maintenance done on your car. You wouldn’t drive your car with the check engine light on, because if you do the results are the engine would grow hot and eventually blow up from overworking. We are wired in the same way, for so many of us, myself included, have been operating with the check engine light on promising ourselves that we will check ourselves later. Just like you take care of your car, you have to take care of yourself.
Dangers of Neglecting Self-Care
Burnout:
Is emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that is caused by prolonged and excessive stress. Burnout happens when you feel overwhelmed, drained emotionally, and you are unable to meet the constant demands of work, family, and friends. Burnout can make you lose interest and motivation in helping others as well as doing the things that you love. Burnout can reduce the amount of productivity that you have. It can deplete your energy and can make you feel helpless, hopeless, resentful, and in some cases vengeful. Lastly, burnout can have and cause long-term negative effects on the body which can lower your immune system. This leaves you more vulnerable to illnesses like the flu, heart issues, and other forms of common colds.
Compassion Fatigue:
Compassion fatigue is similar to burnout and is known as the “negative cost of caring.” It’s the loss of the ability to empathize or feel any form of compassion for others. Compassion fatigue can make you feel things like lowered or interrupted concentration, irritability, withdrawal, nightmares, stress, anxiety, insomnia, loss of self-worth, and so on.
Ways to Self Care
Exercise or Do Yoga
Eat Healthily
Find Someone to Talk to
Change of Environment
Set Boundaries
Make a clear schedule and stick to it. Whatever does not get done within that time frame can wait for another day. Set reasonable expectations for yourself and plan your time accordingly. Don’t procrastinate.
Find Your Happy Place
Take a Break: Take a couple of days off and disconnect from the outside world. This can include going on a well-needed vacation. Disconnecting technology will allow for you to have time to recenter and reset.
Always Take Care Of Yourself!
**I hope everyone has a safe and blessed week and I will see you all on Saturday for our Weekly Topic Saturdays**
~Just Breathe...A Golden Dream~
Amen.
As a wife, mother to four, and pastor's wife, I definitely understand burnout. But I found out that a lot of this is no one's fault but our own. And it starts with a very powerful two letter word, No, lol. We have to learn how to say no, and be okay with it. We can't be everywhere, do everything, and be everybody. I don't think God made us in that way. Self care is also keeping everything balanced. Being a pastor's wife it's very easy to let the work of the church spill over into your life outside the church. I do the very best I can for the church, and the people, and once I do that …
This post was very encouraging and a great reminder. Thank you for the self-care tips. Great post.
Hey Golden Fam,
This Motivational post is so important. Self-care is something that I rarely do. It usually happens very spur of the moment. It has become less and less due to the coronavirus pandemic. Everything has been shut down and I am too skeptical. Before pandemic, I would get my nails done, toes done, go and get massages, or go shopping to buy makeup. But all of that has been compromised. I definitely agree that self-care is important for the mental health as well as physical.
I am a counseling student and we study burnout and compassion fatigue. There are a lot of people that don't realize just how dangerous those are. I am so glad that you touched…