Late last week, I found myself in a hospital bed.  At 27 weeks pregnant, you do not want to find yourself in the labor and delivery department, timing your contractions.  After four hours attached to monitors, having test after test run and dozens of questions asked, the doctor was puzzled and came to a simple solution.  “You need to slow down, take it easy, and take care of yourself,” she said.

“How am I supposed to do that with a 16 month old little boy, two dogs, and a husband?” I said.

“Find a way.” She responded.

I went home and really thought about it.  I really had to give it some deep thought, as I don’t want to go through what I did with my son.  You see, he was a preemie born five weeks early and the first couple of months of his life were tough.  I don’t want to put my new-coming baby girl through this as well.  So what do I do?

The answer was so simple that when it hit me I just had to laugh.  I need to just take care of myself.

When you look at the phrase, “take care of yourself”, it seems like such an easy concept right?  If only it wasn’t such a loaded phrase.

I’ll start by listing a just few ways that we don’t take care of ourselves as women, mothers, and daughters:

1.  Saying yes to almost anything.

We do it because we want to avoid an argument.  We want to avoid making someone unhappy or letting them down. We’re afraid to say no.

2.  We don’t state how we feel.

We don’t want to cause friction.  We don’t feel like it’s that important.  We feel like it is important but don’t want to be confrontational.

3.  We put our needs on the back burner.

We feel like the needs of someone else (parent, child, boyfriend, husband) are more important than ours.  We think we’ll address our needs eventually.  We don’t have time.

In the true scheme of life, these little decisions that we make every day seem unimportant.  You’re not giving yourself enough importance.  You also haven’t noticed how those little decisions are affecting you in the bigger picture.

Take notice of how unbalanced that can make you.  Lack of balance in your life is when you waste all your energy on other people causing you to crash and suffer (mentally, physically, and emotionally).

You hold a high importance in the lives of others and in yours as well.  The decisions you make will cause you to be unbalanced and suffer if you don’t take small actions now to improve your well-being.  Although we are naturally wired to please our families and significant others, we have to take care of ourselves.

3 ways to take care of yourself

 

Now let’s make some realistic goals and try to stick to them.

1. Say no more often.

If you don’t feel like doing something, going somewhere, or having something, say no!  If you don’t have time, are too tired, don’t feel well, say no!

2. Tell em’ how you feel!

Don’t hold it all in.  State your opinion once in a while.  Of course in a loving way.  Pick your battles.  However, don’t keep your mouth shut all the time.

3.  Put your needs higher on the list.

Not okay with putting them first?  Well sometimes you have to.  For instance, your health.  You need to be healthy so you can be at your fullest potential for everyone else.  As far as other things that involve your overall well-being- at least put them higher on the list and actually get them done.

 

Yeah, all of this is easier said than done.  If you evaluate your life right now, you’ll realize how much you don’t do either of these things.  Today, do just the first.  Tomorrow, try the second.  Little by little, you’ll make room for yourself in your life.

You know what I did for two days this past weekend?  I sat on my butt and watched youtube videos, surfed the net, and let the house get messy.  My husband took care of everything else.  You know what else happened?  The world didn’t end and it felt so good to be rested.

Give it a try.  It works!  In the comments below, state any insights about this.  Did you notice that you’re doing any of these things?

If you liked this post, be sure to share it with a friend.  You know they have the same issues as you in this area.  😉