The meditation is at 10:55, the beginning is my personal story about why its important to take care of yourself.
Why is self-care so important? Because without it, you will lose yourself to what you are doing. You will become a slave to your tasks. You, beautiful soul, are worth so much more than what you can do.
Hello, my name is Lumalia; I’m a yoga teacher and connection architect with Celebrate Again, founded on the belief that life is too short not to celebrate all of it.
My Self Care Story: How I Found Out Why Self Care Is Important
Several years ago, as a new mom with a challenging baby, my body started to break down. When my daughter was just two years old, I started losing the use of both my hands, unable to do any strenuous activities, including pick her up normally, do the dishes, hold a mug, and well, even button my own pants.
You see we, my husband and I, had unfortunately fallen into an outdated cultural assumption that the men work and the women tend to the house and children – except I also ran a wedding photography business and was at the height of my career when my health issues forced me to close my business, for what I thought would be forever.
Thinking I could do everything I never ask for help from my husband, hired a nanny, or had the thought that I could even get help. But I never asked for that and my husband, who was not naturally inclined to be a servant at the time, didn’t even consider it. All because, as a woman, I assumed I could raise my child, run a household and run a business, and all this even better than my husband could. Despite being very sick and having my body deeply compromised, I thought I could “do it all.”
Self Care Means Asking for Help
While this mindset is “empowering,” it ironically is really the most debilitating mindset we women can put on ourselves because you do not have to do it all.
Let me say that again:
Becoming sick really taught me the importance of asking for help, something I actually wrote about for The Mighty which you can read here. But more than that, I’ve learned the importance of how to take care of myself as a woman.
Self Care is Important Because We Need To Slow Down
Up until 2020, I would push through copious amounts of work and pain to get things done, and if I’m honest, it’s still something I have to daily check-in with myself about. Because, in my mind, I thought, “if I don’t do this right now, this will not get done and no one else will do it.” (more on how you do anything is how you do everything here.)
This subconscious thought led me to bad cycles of pushing so hard to get things done that I would crash soon after checking off my to-do list because my body couldn’t sustain that amount of “doing.” And maybe for you, your body doesn’t crash, but your anxiety rises or your mental health begins to be decline.
Without Self Care We Can Loose Ourselves
Trying to fit into the cultural norms of doing it all instead of asking for help, instead of choosing self care, I lost myself.
So, to my fellow super women, first of all: you are amazing because you CAN do it all… but what if next time–say when your kitchen is messy and you feel like you have to clean it right now–you take a moment to see if you could take a step back, choose self care, have your partner help or come back later after you’ve given yourself the option to maybe even rest, do something delightful or simply to take a glorious deep breath.
What if we stopped praising “super women” for “doing it all” and instead started sharing the joys of choosing self care and celebrate yourself!
Affirmation To Take With You
I am worth self care
I’ve done enough
I am enough
Taking care of myself isn’t selfish
I deserve to be my best self
I don’t have to do it all
I am enough
Right here
Right now
