The Importance of Self-Care

This past year has been a hectic year for many all over the world. People have been coping with all that life brings in many ways. One way is working on self-care practices. There are many reasons why introducing practices of self-care into your life can make a pivotal difference in your life. For many, these practices and habits get overlooked in the chaos of the day, particularly during the busy holiday season. 

What Is Self-Care

Self-care is defined as any activity that is intentionally meant to care for our mental, physical, emotional, and even spiritual health and wellness. Certain activities are common self-care practices. This means taking care of yourself so that you are healthy physically, and mentally.

You are at your best so that you can work, interact with friends and family, and you can do all the things you need to and want to in a day. This can look very different for each individual but some common self-care activities are listed below.

Self-Care Practices:

• Yoga
• Taking a hot bath to relax
• Enjoying a cup of tea
• Journaling
• Meditation
• Spirituality Practices
• Getting a massage.
• Listening to calming music
• Cutting down on screen time.

And many more.

Why Is Self-Care Important

Adding self-care practices to your life has many benefits. Self-care is shown to reduce stress. In addition, many people feel that making time in their lives for self-care practices improves their own mental health greatly. Many people also report greater levels of happiness in their daily lives when incorporating self-care practices.

Taking care of yourself can also improve physical health. In addition to self-care on a personal level, self-care is a factor when facing illness, disease, or disability. Many health care professionals are adopting an integrative health care style approach that includes checking in with patients to help them seek balance in all aspects of life. This helps people facing illness or disease recover faster, better, and more successfully overall.

Tips To Practice Self Care In Your Life 

• Get enough sleep
• Balance your commitments and priorities
• Make a weekly schedule
• Say no to optional tasks or events you don’t want to take on.
• Stay on top of physical and mental health
• Exercise
• Allow quality time for friends and family.

Making space for self-care in your life provides great benefits to physical and mental health. Some aspects of self-care are personally enriching and fun.

Self-care is not selfish; it is vital to being a well healthy and balanced person. This lets you face whatever life throws at you without breaking your stride. 

©Barbara Ann Mojica December 12, 2022

FEELING OVERWHELMED AND ISOLATED?

DON’T KNOW HOW TO ORGANIZE FAMILY SCHEDULES WHILE WE ARE ALL WORKING FROM HOME?

Here are a few ideas to keep things running smoothly and making everyone in the family more productive.

Create a To-Do List the Night Before

Instead of waking up in the morning to make your to-do list, make your list the night before. This way you can go to bed relaxed and confident for the next day. You also wake up in the morning knowing exactly what you have planned for the day. You might also consider planning on Sunday night for the upcoming week. Then when you wake on Monday you have a plan in place.

Prioritize

Take a look at the tasks on your list. What tasks offer the largest return? What tasks offer the most value and achievement? For example, answering email or paying bills isn’t a task that offers a large return. However, making a sale or meeting with a client is a very productive task. Put your most profitable or results-oriented tasks first on your list.

Get a Good Night’s Sleep

The quality of your sleep is important to sustain your energy levels throughout your day. Good sleep means you’ll be fresh and energetic all day long. Creating a to-do list is a good way to help you get a good night’s sleep because you can put the day’s stresses to rest.

Also consider adding soothing nighttime rituals to your routine. For example, meditate, stretch or read before you go to bed. Keep a gratitude journal and write before you sleep. Go to bed and wake at the same time to help your body know what to expect.

Eat Healthy

The food you eat has a direct correlation to how energetic and productive you are. Junk food will make you sluggish. Healthy food will help you stay energized all day long. Feed your body well and it will respond by keeping you alert and energetic.

Get Organized      

If you spend half your time searching for files, names and numbers, you are wasting time. Make sure any items that you use on a regular basis are easy to grab from your desk chair or find in your computer. They should be easy to find and use.

Take Breaks

Productivity doesn’t mean working from sun-up to sundown. In fact, if you work without stopping, you’re likely to burn out. Instead, commit to taking a break every hour. Walk around or get some air to get the blood moving throughout your body.

Focus

Do you multi-task hoping it’ll make you more productive? Do you manage one task while your mind is already onto the next task? Both habits are unproductive. When you focus on what you’re doing, not only is the task more enjoyable, it also gets done faster and better.

Productivity is possible. With a little planning, attention, and self-care you can get more done in half the time. These tools are simple but effective. Try just one of these steps and watch your own personal productivity improve.

MARY HAD A SLEEPY SHEEP

Written by Julia Dweck

Illustrated by Wilson Williams, Jr.

This a a preview of the kindle version of Julia Dweck’s newest book to be officially released on September 5, which can be preordered at a discount on Amazon.

I was really surprised to learn that a girl named Mary Sawyer did have a little lamb that she brought with her to school in Sterling, Massachusetts around 1830. A statue of the lamb remains in the town today. Ms. Dweck dedicated this book to her husband Sheppard and named her sheep character after him.

In this new retelling of the classic nursery rhyme, Mary has a pet sheep with a problem; it never seems to be able to stay awake. When Sheppard shows up in Mary’s bed, her mother yells, screams, and kicks the animal out of the house. Mary is desperate to teach her pet to sleep. She tries reading it books, dancing lessons, spraying it with garden hoses, and tickling it with feathers. Mary feeds her sheep spicy food, snacks and drinks. She sprays her sheep with shaving cream, turns the heat off and blasts her music on the French horn. Finally, Mary decides to try a technique that humans use when they can’t get to sleep. To her surprise, it works! Now she has the opposite problem; Sheppard can’t seem to stay awake!

As is the case in most of Ms. Dweck’s other books, the rhymes are cleverly written in four line verse. My only concern in this kindle version is that the text is written in white letters that get washed out in the color on some pages making it a little difficult to read. Some parents may take issue with the fact that Mary’s mother literally kicks Sheppard out of bed while yelling and screaming at the sheep. Very young children may misunderstand the illustrator’s attempt at humor.

There are lots of bonus features included with this book. Four website links will allow the reader to explore his skills in being a cartoonist, actor, designer or author. Readers are asked to search for the picture of a hidden mouse on each of the pages. There is a separate “find what is wrong on this page” activity as well. Children are encouraged to continue learning and having fun after they finish reading the book making this purchase a good investment.

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The Girl Who Stayed Awake

by Karen Rosario

This is a story about a girl named Lucy-Go-Lucky. It is written in rhyme and composed of much beautiful poetry. Lucy has a vivid imagination. She has trouble sleeping, but when she dreams, her dreams are so real! One night she decides that she wants to dream of birds singing, of sun and of snow. She finds the Planet Ping where there are birds with purple eyes and beaks who sing while they are upside down. She dances and parties all night and does not want to leave. They give her a baby Pingle; but when she wakes up, it is gone.  Feeling depressed, the following night Lucy decides to be a queen in a land of dragons and castles. She meets the Pongles who have buttons for eyes and teeth and rubber tires for skin. But they don’t want her to rule them in the land of Pong, and she must fight the Pongles all night long. She traps them in her sack, but when she awakes in the morning, they are gone. She is grumpy and does not pay attention in school. That night she resolves not to sleep. When she does succumb, she is dreaming of riding on a horse through the forest. There she meets the Shadow Grudge who lives in the Planet of Lost Hope. He presents her with a huge stinky cake to eat. After eating it all night long, she begins to look like the ugly Grudge who has peppercorn eyes and feet made of moldy bread. In the morning the Grudge is standing beside her bed.  Lucy draws a picture of the Grudge and tries to flatten him in a book. Her father wakes her and tells her it is time to go to school. She does not want to get out of bed.  He reassures her that night dreams are not important, we can make our dreams reality by working hard and using our brains. So Lucy decides to face her fears.

The author informs us that she has been influenced by Dr. Seuss, Edward Lear,  Jim Henson, and the Sendaks. You can certainly see this influence in the poetry she writes, The mostly black and white illustrations and rambling script stand in stark contrast to the explicit vivid images in her dreams. The book needs strong parental or teacher guided discussion, but it will serve as a starting point for lots of interesting conversations and comparisons for older children. I recommend adding it to your poetry collection.

You can download this book as a pdf at http://freekidsbooks.org  or purchase it in Lulu Marketplace (see Link below)

http://www.lulu.com/shop/karen-rosario-ingerslev/the-girl-who-stayed-awake/paperback/product-16952312.html;jsessionid=01577250179AD2EE9C119F01619EC3E6