Orlando Therapist Shares Importance of Self-Care
Orlando Therapist Shares Importance of Self-Care
You’ve been feeling drained and overextended. You’re running out of gas emotionally and physically. You know things need to change, but you just can’t seem to prioritize your needs.
You say, ‘tomorrow’ or ‘after I pick up the kids,’ but the time just never seems to come. You’re inundated with endless tasks and a mile-long to-do list.
You’re secretly wishing someone will notice and give you the much-needed break you deserve, but your wish never seems to come true. Your needs continue to get pushed to the back burner and you just keep telling yourself, ‘later.’
At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, we help overwhelmed and overextended people learn to value their own needs just as much as they value others. We help them put a self-care plan in place that nourishes their mind, body, and spirit. The work we do allows people to connect with the best version of themselves and bring this renewed self to their family, work, and friends.
As an Orlando therapist that LOVES to talk about self-care, I am kicking off this self-care blog series by exploring some important information, like why self-care is important, how self-care plans can be different, and how to get started with your self-care routine.
Why Is Self-Care Important?
We live very busy and demanding lives. With the proliferation of technology, the demands and expectations put on us to constantly be producing, achieving, and excelling are draining to our wellbeing.
If we don’t take time to nurture our mind, body, and spirit, we will quite literally burn out. It is not sustainable to be in high gear 100% of our waking hours.
We need downtime so that we can continue to show up to our very demanding and fast-paced lives. In a culture where so much emphasis is placed on output, we must take care to nurture and be mindful of the input.
Self-Care Is NOT Selfish
Many of the clients I work with have mistaken self-care as being self-indulgent, believing that making their own needs a priority is selfish. If you don’t prioritize your needs for self-care, who will?
Ultimately, the responsibility of making sure you have what you need emotionally, physically, and spiritually is yours. Don’t leave it to chance or circumstance. Your needs are important, too, and shouldn’t come in last place to family and work obligations.
Besides, if you’ve run yourself completely empty taking care of everyone else, your family gets the rundown and frazzled version of you.
You can’t give from an empty well, my friend.
How Self-care Helps with Anxiety
When you don’t have enough of what you need, you tax your nervous system. If you have a tendency toward anxiety, and you run yourself ragged without proper downtime, your anxiety will spike. Your nervous system needs plenty of rest, nutritious food, and good social connection in order to function in the optimal zone.
If you’re super busy and not well nourished mentally, physically or emotionally, your nervous system will be out of balance. This can rev you up and make you feel reactive, irritable, and anxious. Or it could do the opposite and make you feel lethargic, apathetic, and checked out.
What are the Different Types of Self-Care?
Really, whatever inspires and nurtures you should be included in your self-care routine. There are some common areas to consider when developing your unique self-care plan. There are several different types of self-care.
Emotional Self-Care is making sure to honor how you are feeling. Say, ‘no’ to things that will burn you out and say ‘yes’ to things that will bring you joy. Make sure to cultivate healthy relationships with people that are supportive and validating of your needs.
Physical Self-Care is nurturing your body. This means eating healthy nutritious foods, getting enough sleep, and moving your body in a way that feels good. Physical self-care can also be going to the doctor or getting a body treatment like massage or acupuncture.
Mental Self-Care is satisfying your thirst for mental stimulation. This may come from reading a good book, taking a class, or learning a new skill. If you enjoy our work, this will often meet your mental self-care needs.
Spiritual Self-Care can mean being out in nature and for others, this means having a dedicated spiritual practice. Nurturing your spiritual self-care allows you to step outside of yourself and feel a sense of belonging with something larger than yourself. Spiritual self-care can help you feel joy and gratitude when things are going well and find meaning and direction when life throws you a curveball.
Social Self-Care is taking the time to meet your social needs. Extroverts have more social self-care needs than introverted people. Honoring your social self-care needs means saying ‘yes’ when you need more social interaction and saying ‘no’ when you’re feeling overstimulated.
Self-Care Looks Different for Different People
What fills your cup and makes you happy is different for everyone. One common pitfall I see when talking about self-care is comparing your needs to someone else’s. Don’t compare your self-care needs to someone else’s. What you need to feel nurtured and satisfied is what you need.
Self-Care Changes over Time
Your self-care needs will also change over time. What you needed five years ago is likely different than what you need now. As our bodies mature, family demands shift and work stress changes, so do our self-care needs.
Make sure to evaluate your self-care needs as things shift in your life.
How is Self-Care Beneficial?
One of the first benefits I see for people when they incorporate a nourishing self-care plan is they start to feel better about themselves. When folks start to prioritize their own needs instead of putting them on the back burner, they feel a sense of validation, and their self-worth increases. For many people, they have spent a lifetime standing silently in the background waiting for someone else to notice and honor their needs. When we take our self-care into our own hands, we stop being a victim of circumstance and feel empowered and that we matter.
There are many other benefits to self-care such as more satisfying relationships, better ability to manage emotions, more self-confidence, greater joy and happiness, and more purpose and fulfillment in life. Really y’all, the list goes on and on.
What Are the Disadvantages of a Self-Care Routine?
If you’re in a relationship where your needs are not valued, when you start to prioritize your needs, the relationship will likely get challenged. If that’s the case, it’s been a long time coming and your relationship needs an overhaul anyway.
Healthy relationships make space for both partners’ needs. One partner’s needs are not more important than the other. In healthy relationships, partners are able to negotiate their needs so that both people can get what they need.
What Are Self-Care Ideas That Are Easy to Start?
Allow yourself to sleep in once per week
Start a journaling practice either in the morning or at the end of the day
Meet a friend for lunch once a week
Read a spiritual quote each day
Start a mindfulness or meditation practice
Go to the doctor regularly
Take time in nature once per week
Go for a walk each day
Take a bubble bath
Get a massage or acupuncture
Try a new workout class
Bake a new recipe
Go to a bookstore and peruse
Do yoga at the park
Kick everyone out of your house and enjoy the silence*
Listen to an audiobook and color an adult coloring book*
*These last two are my fave :).
How to Start A Self-Care Routine
Start with low-hanging fruit. What is the easiest part of your self-care plan to integrate? Is it starting a mindfulness practice in the morning or incorporating more social time? Explore one activity that you can easily incorporate into your weekly routine.
As you start to prioritize your needs, developing a more robust self-care will become easier. Take in the benefits of the first few small steps, and build from there.
If you find that starting a self-care routine feels overwhelming or impossible, make sure you reach out to a therapist for support. Sometimes, negative experiences from the past will make it difficult to take care of yourself. These things can be worked through in therapy.
One more important tip about self-care: The moment you hear yourself say, “I am too busy to ……,’ immediately stop and prioritize your self-care because you’re already overextended.
Orlando Self-Care Spotlight Series
In our following posts on self-care, we will be highlighting local businesses that have been nominated by other Orlando therapists as awesome self-care spots in Orlando. We have carefully selected locally owned Orlando businesses that nurture mind, body, and spirit to be featured in our series Orlando Self-Care Spotlight.
In our next blog post, we are featuring our first Orlando Self-Care Spotlight, The Body Lab Pilates Body Lab, where we interview Dede Ramos, the founder and Master Instructor. Dede has years of experience working with all demographics including the senior generation, athletes, dancers, pre/post pregnancy, and pre/post-rehab to name a few.
Therapy Orlando
If you’re interested in working on your self-care with a therapist, click here to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with Mindful Living Counseling Orlando.
Additional Self-Care Resources
5 Ways to Become More Gentle With Yourself
Orlando Self-Care Spotlight: Orlando Power Yoga
Orlando Self-Care Spotlight: 4.22 Organics With Marlene
Orlando Self-Care Spotlight: Hair With Melissa Dyer
Orlando Self-Care Spotlight: Cortney Singleton at The Salt Room
About the Author
Orlando Therapist, Lauran Hahn, LMHC, specializes in working with clients that are struggling with anxiety and trauma. She also helps clients heal from and stop getting into toxic relationships. Lauran has a Certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist as well as a Certified EMDR Therapist and EMDRIA Approved Consultant. She helps people feel calm in their body, at peace their mind, and connected in relationships.
Mindful Living Counseling Orlando is a trauma healing center. Our Orlando Therapy Services include anxiety therapy, trauma counseling, eating disorder recovery, teen counseling, and healing from toxic relationships. At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, we use a down-to-earth approach infused with cutting-edge therapies that go beyond traditional talk therapy so clients can heal at the root level and experience lasting change. Feel free to access one of our Guided Meditations to help you feel settled and calm now.