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The Art of Self-Care

When I say Self-Care what comes to mind for you?

For most people one of two things pop up:

Physical Self-Care – Diet, Exercise, Green Juice, Plank Challenges
Indulgences – Mani/Pedi, Massage, Chocolate, Red wine

These are all great ways to nurture yourself and by all means please do some of these every day!

Big Bold Life Self-Care, however goes deeper than these acts of kindness and care you do hopefully a daily basis.

Big Bold Life Self-Care is not just something you “DO” it is a “Way of BEING.”

Big Bold Life Self Care starts with three simple steps to get in touch with your inner voice, or knowing to identify what it is you really need:

Create Space create time and space to be alone with yourself to connect
Ask and listen what is it I need to make today (this meeting, week, month, year etc.) amazing!
Take Action – be willing to make a change or take a risk

Connecting to your inner voice, higher self, knowing etc. is a great way to understand what you are in need of today. Once you connect the challenge becomes to live each day with our inner voice as the Map or GPS to help lead you through your day. Living from the INSIDE – OUT not the OUTSIDE – IN as we tend to do in today’s society.

If you listened to the show today you heard me talk about my gingerbread man, here is the original artwork. Lovely yes?

Mr Gingerbread Man navigating his world from the inside out!

Mr. Gingerbread man, let's call him Gingey, has many layers built out and around his knowing. These are great protections but also make it hard to reach the center or true essence. See the arrows pointing at Gingey? These are outside influence who all want a piece of Gingey’s day: “the Shoulds,” the “must-do’s,” the expectations we have for ourselves as well as the expectations of others. How about the needs of others? The need to be the best spouse, father, son, friend, worker etc. Phew! Gingey has a lot of outside factors to consider when planning his day, week or life.

Living Inside Out or practicing the Art of Big Bold Life Self-Care is letting the inner voice be the decision maker and navigator of Gingey’s life journey. Very refreshing, no?

In order to let your inside voice lead you must first find it and get to know it. If you feel ready to listen or interested a bit in what it has to say here are a few ideas to help you get acquainted:

Slow Down – Create a Pause in your day. I am a big fan of the Morning Routein, and even just the habit of taking a deep breath before bounding out of bed in the AM. Our guest Sara Tharrington, owner of The Yoga Garden, shared a great tip for using a breath alarm (Setting the alarm on your phone for a certain time of day to remind you to take a deep breath and center yourself) – LOVE THIS Sara, THANK YOU!

Try just asking yourself, what do I need today, what sounds good to me?

A great coaching exercise I do with clients is “More or Less” You can do this solo with a journal or piece of paper and simply brainstorm what do I want more of?If that is hard maybe what do I want less of is easier.

Take a walk – being in nature and the rhythm of walking is a great way to connect to your inner voice.

Say NO to something you really don’t want to do. Scary right? I promise you will survive it and if you replace it with something that feels good to you, you will thrive!

Think of yourself as a small child, what would that little child need to be happy today?

For those of you wanting more, feel free to download my Big Bold Life Self-Care Planning Template and write your plan down! If you need help in creating a plan, connecting to your inner voice, or getting to action hire me. I’d love to work with you 1:1 to craft the biggest boldest self-care plan with you!

Have fun with this you have my permission to PLAY and to PLAN how you will be good to yourself this year! Don’t wait another minute…start right now be Big and Bold! :)