When any of us decide to start a new self care routine, a common mistake is to try introducing too many things — all at once — into the schedule. “I will eat healthy food, exercise, meditate starting Monday!” While it’s a great idea, it’s too much change for most of us. Too much change typically produces stress over load and that results in doing almost nothing. Doing almost nothing is then typically followed by negative thinking and being really hard on the “innocent self!”
The reader question went on to ask: If I can only work one new self care technique into my schedule, what is the best way to start?
I’m tempted to quickly say meditation. Because? Regular meditation creates more calm, more focus, and eventually more careful consideration of thoughts, decisions, and actions. That just means that regular meditation might motivate you in the direction of even more good decisions about self care.
BUT, exercise, especially if you are healthy enough for cardio activity, truly boosts and alters mood. I typically say that it’s close to impossible to “maintain” a bad mood after 20 minutes into a good cardio workout. Consequently, regular exercise is likely to motivate most of us to introduce other self care activities.
AND healthy eating? If that’s the start up you select, know that eating well truly changes energy. It produces, quite simply, better fuel for your body and mind. You also sleep better. The positive aspect of that is a “no brainer.” Additionally, the elimination of “chemicals” in packaged food/junk food alters your brain. And more and more research on the positive results of eliminating wheat and dairy is quite convincing. Good eating IN PLACE makes most of us want to do all the other good things for self care!
Final analysis: look at your life style; consider what’s most natural for your first step — or what would be easier for you and introduce the least amount of stress as you start. Then when you feel you have that ONE thing in place, pick the second thing to start. Again, think about what’s going to be easier for you. That does not mean EASY — just least difficult! Continue the process of adding one thing at a time, and before you know it, you’ll have all the self care pieces in place and realize you feel and look better than you ever have.
I’ll add some easy start up steps for meditation in a follow up blog…because I truly DO believe it is life changing and you’ll be glad you introduced the practice!