What is self-care, and why is it so important? And when will you know that you are showing yourself kindness and self-love? In this video, Reiki Master Geneva Robins helps you clarify what self-care will recharge you best.

 

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Transcript – What does Self-care look like?

Hi, my name is Geneva Robins, and I’m a Reiki Master here at LunaHolistic.

One of the questions that I have been asked recently is, what does self-care look like? Or what does self-love or showing yourself love look like? Or how do you express that care and love?

And I think this is such an important topic or question because we all know that self-care is a really important part of how we help ourselves and how we help other people.

But many people might feel guilty for taking care of themselves, or you put yourself to the very, very last, or maybe just frankly, life is really, really busy. And you’re just kind of coping with the constant onslaught of dishes and laundry, and kids, and work and all of the stuff that you have to manage as part of your regular day-to-day, and taking care of yourself is an afterthought.

Or maybe you think that self-care can only happen if you’ve got a big chunk of time or money. Or you have to wait until you go on vacation to take care of yourself.

And it’s not a bad thing to take a vacation and give yourself those bigger chunks of time where you can really rest and heal and take care of yourself.

But I feel like taking care of yourself is so important. And it’s the engine of all of the good that you do in the world, that you can’t leave it for vacation once a year.

You have to somehow find a way of incorporating self-care into your day, even if it’s just a tiny, tiny little bit, or a symbolic act that you love and care for yourself.

Why is self-care so important? From the work that I do in Reiki, we start with self-care. Everything we do is based on that foundation of our own practice, of self-healing and meditation.

We know that you can’t truly help another person unless you are helping yourself. Part of that is doing your own work, which is one of the Reiki ideals.

And it all comes back to this idea that all healing is self-healing, that when we’re helping another person, we’re really helping them with their own self-healing practice. And the best way we can help them is to have our own self-healing practice.

That there’s this idea that people will never do what you say, they’re only going to do what you do. And this is particularly true of children because they see you every day and they see what you’re actually doing. So if you are not taking care of yourself, then there’s a lower chance that they are going to learn how to take care of themselves.

So that’s one part is, the more you take care of yourself, the greater chance that the people you care about will take care of themselves. The other part is that you’re probably a really helpful, healing person. A lot of people care about you and depend on you.

And what happens if you go down? The whole thing comes crumbling in.

If a lot of people care and depend upon you, and you’re not taking care of yourself, then it actually can create a form of harm for other people. When you are taking care of yourself, it is often the best gift and the kindest, most loving thing you can do for other people, because your well-being is their well-being.

So that’s why self-care is so important. But what does it look like in practice? What are some ideas of ways that you can incorporate self-care into your daily routine?

Everybody is going to have their own sweet spot of the amount of time and energy you need to spend on yourself in order to feel really good. And some days you’re gonna have that time and some of the days you will have less.

But even symbolic acts of self-care or self-kindness will go a really long way to helping you recharge your energy.

Thinking about it in terms of energy or what sort of fills your tank or fills your bucket is a good place to start. That you want to do things that are going to overall, energize you and replenish your energy reserves.

So things that bring in true joy, peace, and a settled, grounded, calm feeling. Knowing that you’re working towards a sense of true peace, calm and gentleness, will help you avoid any sort of numbing or addictive behaviours.

So you will be reaching for things that are truly nourishing and sustaining. Rather than a quick fix that gives you a brief burst of energy, but comes with a long-term cost.

So one of the practices that can be helpful is to actually brainstorm a self-care list. And I’ll give you some categories of different forms of self-care. Just to get you started on this brainstorm list.

And, in particular, try to think of things that have low or no cost and take about five to 20 minutes.

If it’s something that takes a much longer time frame or costs more, it’s likely that you’ll do it less. And we want to look for things that you are going to do every single day and keep up with in the long term, and come back to every single day.

The first part is just physical self-care. So taking care of your body, making sure you are brushing your teeth, you are having a shower or a bath, taking a moment to care for your appearance.

And to get yourself into bed on time. Make sure you’re drinking adequate water, making sure you’re hydrated and eating healthy, vibrant, sustaining foods.

Bringing gentle, joyful movement into your body is a wonderful place to start. That’s something that your body is going to need anyway. But exercise has a lot of mental health benefits, and can really help clear and reset your energy field.

So strive for just getting started. Maybe a few minutes of yoga or dancing to your favourite song, just getting some movement into the body is going to really recharge and nourish.

The next thing that is really great for self-care is creativity. So doing something where you’re using your hands, where it’s not digital or on a screen, but you’re actually making something physical.

Creativity can come in lots and lots of different forms. I personally love playing with pens and inks and colour, and painting and things like that.

Music is a fantastic form of self-care, both to listen to, but also to perform. So singing in the shower. Teaching yourself an instrument…

With creativity, you can think of the traditional arts, but you can also think of anything that you’re making. So making a great meal if you like that, going out into your garden and planting some beautiful flowers. Being creative in your home and making your space beautiful.

Even something like playing with Lego or playdough, sculpting, getting your hands in some clay. Whatever it is, you’re when you’re making a physical thing, or bringing that creative drive to the world. It can really help recharge and nourish you in many, many ways.

The other thing that happens when we engage in creative, fun, and playful activities, so things that don’t have a set outcome. You’re not graded. It doesn’t have to be good. When you’re doing something like just even doodling or drawing.

What ends up happening is that you access the creative centers of your brain and sometimes problem-solving goes way, way up and ideas and insight comes into your awareness just by doing something fun, playful, and light.

Sometimes self-care is also about things that light up your heart and creating connections with other people. It’s not always a solo activity. So sometimes it is about you know, hanging out with a pet or a loved one.

Calling up somebody who you really care about, and just talking to them for a few minutes, or sending them a little emoji. I really, really love sending people random little emojis. And anytime I think of anybody, I am sending them a little message. And that to me is that connection piece that lights up your heart and lets that energy flow in for you.

With that is doing things that connect you with beauty in the world. So going and really, really looking at the beautiful scenes in nature or connecting to other people’s creativity.

Sometimes watching a show or reading a book, or creating a space where you can engage with other people in what they’re creating and making.

As a form of self-care, I find journaling to be one of my go-to strategies, I love the clarity that I can get with journaling. Even if it doesn’t even make sense, I just will set a timer, and I will write for five minutes. And just let the words tumble out onto the page without editing or crossing anything out.

That’s called a free write. And it’s a really great way of seeing whatever is inside your heart, what’s on your mind, just getting it out of you and onto the page. And that can be a really powerful process.

Sometimes just writing and expressing your thoughts and feelings to either yourself or to other people is really great as well.

And of course, my one of my favourite and go-to forms of self-care is meditation. So even just a few minutes of meditation can help recenter ground and help you feel clearer, calmer, and really bring you out of that stressed fight or flight state and into that calmer, rested nervous system.

Meditation can be very challenging at times. But the only way you can really do meditation wrong is to not do it. There are many, many, many different forms of meditation out there.

So don’t give up if the first couple of you try don’t resonate with you. I’ll send some links in the description. Make sure you give them a try. Even just a few moments of meditation can really help you clear, reset and ground.

If you know Reiki, Reiki self-healing is also a fantastic addition to your self-care routine. I really really love it. Learning Reiki has completely changed my life and is a big part of my daily practice. It helps me just clear my energy if I feel like I’ve absorbed other people’s stuff or if I feel a bit bombarded by the energy in the world.

I can always reconnect to the flow and harmony within the earth and ground. I can access this divine universal lifeforce energy and let it flow through me. And I can balance all of my chakras and my aura with just a few moments of mindfulness and awareness and moving the energy with the breath.

Reiki is something you can learn we teach it at LunaHolistic. If you’d like to try a Reiki session, that’s always a good way of sort of kickstarting your practice. Sometimes it helps us to clear things out.

These are just a few of the ways that you can demonstrate that you care for yourself, that you are showing yourself kindness and really bringing that self-love quality to your day.

I’d love to hear how this sits with you. If you’ve got other self-care practices, maybe it’s watching creative videos on YouTube. That’s a big one for me. I’d love to hear from you. Please send me a comment, and I’d love to hear how that all resonates or doesn’t resonate.

And as always, please like and subscribe and share this video with your friends. And until next time, we’ll see you soon. Bye!

 

 


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