“Nothing happens until something moves.” Albert Einstein

Taking care of yourself is the single most important thing you can do to improve your life, your relationships, other people’s lives and even the world around you. Caring for yourself is the “put the oxygen mask over your face first” principle and is key to taking care of others or anything else you feel responsible for. It is needed for sustainability and effectiveness.

We talk about caring for our children, our loved ones and our parents as they age. It is not only accepted, it is expected. This is not so much the case when we talk about caring for ourselves.

It is regarded as a positive thing to talk about taking care of our house, our business, our work, our finances but it is not part of our language or culture to talk about taking care of ourselves. We try to teach our children to take responsibility and to care for others but the most powerful thing is to show them by our example. However, we seldom show them how, as an adult, to truly care for themselves.

Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand my meaning. I am not talking about being narcissistic or focusing on looking out for number one. I am not talking about neglecting your responsibilities or stopping taking care of others. And I am certainly not meaning for you to be selfish or self-indulgent. In fact, any need to indulge or over-indulge yourself just seems to fall away as you learn to truly care for yourself.

What I am talking about is caring for ourselves as whole, complete and valuable human beings. When we take care of ourselves in this way, we are supporting and improving our health and wellbeing, and creating a healthy, joyful, successful and fulfilling environment inside us and in the world around us.

You will find that as you are kinder and more caring towards yourself and taking appropriate action, it ripples out. And the world around you is better for it.

Our health and wellbeing go hand in hand because our mind and our body come in this one package. Our wellbeing is created through our inner experiences; our mental, emotional, energetic and spiritual health. Our body and our physical health reflect the state of our wellbeing. Let me clarify all of this.

Caring for myself is about my relationship and my attitude towards myself. Taking care of myself is about the choices I make and the actions I take.

When I am caring for myself my thoughts and feelings towards myself include understanding, compassion, nurturing, gratitude, love, kindness and respect. Of course, like all healthy relationships it also includes giving and accepting tough love, truth, challenge and responsibility. What is your experience?

The thing is, it is difficult to take real care of something that you mostly take for granted, don’t have a great relationship with or don’t really like or care about. When we look deep inside, most of us find some negative or, at best, neutral feelings towards our body and our inner self.

There are many ways that we can take care of ourselves but the foundations have to be our first priority – eating and drinking, sleeping, personal hygiene, leisure and movement. These are fundamental to caring for our bodies and to our enjoyment of life. Mostly, they are part of our routine and not prioritised. Their value and importance to our health and our life is often underestimated.

Our attitude towards these things and how we go about doing them is as important as what we do.

Looking at it from this perspective, sleep is not just about going to bed to get sleep or napping during the day. It includes the attitude you bring towards your body and it’s need for sleep, how you prepare for sleep and the time you allocate for your body and your mind to repair, recover and rejuvenate through sleep.

Caring for yourself and taking care of yourself is a way of being, a way of living your life where you care for your body and all the parts of your inner experience that you call self. It is a path where you get to experience complete and utter delight, and the very best version of yourself.

The more I worked with this and shared it with others, the more I realised that it is a complex and often paradoxical concept for most of us. Clearly, there are many things to discover and understand about caring for and taking care of ourselves and I want to explore these over the coming weeks.

However, to return to the quote at the beginning – nothing is going to change, for any of us, until we (that means you and me) make a move.

So let me leave you with some practical things for you to explore.

1. Just start noticing how you talk to yourself, the language you use. What is your relationship like? Do you really like yourself? Do you like or really care about your body?
2. The Institute of HeartMath has some simple but very effective tools and techniques that can be used to work with feelings of love, care and compassion towards yourself. A useful beginning practice is Heart-focused Breathing and you can find it at The Quick Coherence Technique
3. If it is used consistently, Louise Hay’s Mirror Work can be very effective in improving   your relationship with yourself. Do yourself a favour and just try it. Learn more about  it here.
4. Remember, it is through our bodies that we experience life and that we express ourselves in the world.

“The human body is not something to transcend or abuse or abhor or ignore but rather the body is the anchor, the gateway, the ultimate gift……” Sera Beak