12 Days of Self Care | Meditate
Welcome, friends!
I’m beyond excited to share 12 Days of Self-Care with you. Each day, I’m going to give you ONE actionable item to help you take better care of your mind and body. Don’t be afraid to start during this busy time of year. Usually, that’s when we need self-care the most! Some of these topics won’t be new, but my goal is to help you see how easy they are to incorporate into your day. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out!
Back in October, I was diagnosed with shingles. I honestly didn’t realize it at the time, but I was in the midst of some serious anxiety. It crept up on me and made life difficult daily. Anxiety does that. It just tiptoes around and builds up this wall of tension and stress and exhaustion. For me, it built up for so long that my body had to physically react in the form of shingles. Honestly, I didn’t even know stress could cause shingles until my doctor talked to me about it. She said that when our bodies are under serious stress and anxiety, our immune systems can’t function as well as they might otherwise. Enter: viruses that take advantage of our weakness.
Just what stressed people need, right?
After a couple weeks of blinding pain, lots of rest, and medication, I started to feel normal again. But the anxiety was still palpable. It was literally impossible for me to sit still for more than 3 minutes without feeling like I needed to get up and do something. I had trouble letting quiet prevail and felt like I needed to fill the space with talking and movement. My husband, on more than one occasion, would look at me like he didn’t even know who I was because my behavior was erratic and stressful for him.
Something had to change. For my husband. For my kids. For myself.
A couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I started meditating. I had done it for a while in the summer, but let the habit slip away. I’ve found that the best time for me to meditate is the 10 minutes right after I wake up in the morning or, if that doesn’t happen, the 10 minutes after the 3 year old goes down for a nap. Then, before I go to bed, I meditate one more time for another 10 minutes. Starting and ending the day by relaxing my body and mind helps me let go of the things that would often creep into my head and stick there for the entire day and wake me up at night.
Meditating has helped me to set my daily intentions with more clarity. It could be something as small as paying a bill that is due, or sitting down to have a cup of tea and read for a few moments in the afternoon. Small steps bring big changes, as I have learned in other areas of my life.
So what I want to do today is encourage you to find a way to meditate at least once a day. I use Headspace because that is what works best for me, but there are a lot of other apps out there to explore. Do what works for you and makes this something you can stick to on a daily basis. Hold yourself accountable because you want to help yourself not just to survive this busy holiday season, but to come out of it feeling better than you did when it started.
It is possible. I promise.
I’d love it if you would leave a comment below letting me know if/when you start your meditation practice and how it is making you feel! I often feel the results after just a couple of days, which is amazing to me. My mind needs that quiet, focused rest. My guess is that yours does too.
That’s Day 1! Easy, right? Subscribe to my emails so you don’t miss tomorrow’s post!
-Rachael
