Programming Ourselves To Self Care

As moms we spend most of our time juggling between kids, errands, work and family. Taking care of ourselves is always last on our list or we may not make the list at all. A few weeks ago, I bumped into an article about how we can include ourselves, it all comes down to literally programming ourselves. It points to making self care a part of our everyday life, like eating, sleeping, our chores, things we are mentally ‘programmed’ to do.  I know, you might scratch you head thinking ' program'. Hear me out, early in our lives as girls and women we are trained to believe that the 'mom life' is a life of only self sacrifice. We don't take care of us, our family always comes first. Self care for us will never come natural. It will take lots of work and effort on our part to make it happen. So how do we 'program' ourselves? According to French psychotherapist Emile Coué: when our imagination and will power are in conflict or are antagonistic, it’s always our imagination that wins, without any exception. Therefore, we can program ourselves by understanding the power of our imagination. Think about it, imagination have built cities, and make dreams come true. Imagination doesn’t happen on its own though we can’t just sit around and imagine our self-care. For imagination to happen there are three aspects that’s a must.

First we need our brains relaxed when our mind relaxes, the body unwinds. We slow down and with this slowness we are able to restore and energize ourselves which help bring about change.

Second, visualization, imagine an image of what you want for yourself, something for you. Through visualization you can get a clear picture of what self-care means to you.

I’m always visualizing  what kind of 'me' time to have in between nap time. Or visualizing my bath tub, unwinding in it when they are off to bed with a glass of wine and/or candles.

Third and final piece is affirmation, affirmations bring about new thoughts and feelings. When we add new feelings, it does double duty of inducing good thoughts in us and encourages us to consciously act upon them. We can all program ourselves for self-care we just need to RELAX, VISUALIZE and AFFIRM. It’s the principle that’s used by many high achievers and successful entrepreneurs. And Its high time us moms start doing the same. I know, it’s doesn’t sound easy and may seem hard to fathom. But nothing tried nothing done. Lets all imagine together. Try it and let me know how it goes.

As always, Don’t Forget You.

-Ruth