You Must Find Time for Self-Care to Take Back Control of Your Life And Wellbeing

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How do you find time for you when our lives are full of responsibilities towards others? How can you disconnect when, thanks to technology, our lives are always connected? If you’ve been looking for answers to these questions, we’ve got a few tips to share with you below.

Finding time for yourself isn’t a luxury – it is a necessity. If you do not take time to find healthy balance in your life and take care of yourself mentally, physically or spiritually, then you can not take care of those who count on you for loving support. If you don’t take time each day to disconnect from the constant stream of emails and voicemails, then you will not have the energy or focus needed to take control of their money and their lives.

Practice Mindfulness to Achieve Balance

In a previous blog post, we touched on the relationship between mindfulness and money. Practicing mindfulness will also aid you in restoring balance to your life. The time you spend in mindfulness practice is much needed time spent on you – on your self-care.

Beginning a mindfulness meditation practice may be feel intimidating if you have not tried it before. Don’t worry. These simple steps to practicing mindfulness will help you feel more comfortable with adding this essential self-care activity to your daily life.

Give Yourself Permission

Let’s step back a minute and discuss a very important step you must take before committing to add mindfulness to your daily life. First, you must give yourself permission to take care of yourself and put yourself first. This can be a big obstacle for many women to overcome.

There is the cultural belief system that places pressure on women to focus on giving to others but not giving to themselves. We must understand that it is not selfish to focus on self-care. As we mentioned above, without self-care, we will not be able to care for our loved ones. So, to not give ourselves permission to focus on ourselves is actually the selfish action we can take – not the other way around.

Finding Your Sacred Space

Now that you have given yourself permission to find time for you – to restore your healthy balance and to find time for daily mindfulness practice – there is another obstacle you must overcome. You must find a quiet space where you can eliminate distractions and disconnect from outside world.

On our Financial Social Work blog, we took an in-depth look at the steps you can take to create your distraction-free, balance-restoration space. Let’s review those together here.

  1. Own Your Space – Tell your family about your plans and ask that they respect your wish to have distraction-free, quiet time. Put a sign on the door and leave all smartphones, tablets or other communication devices outside of your space.
  2. Create Comfort – Pull the shades, turn down the lights and find a nice soft spot to sit upright. Don’t get too comfortable. This isn’t nap time. It is balance restoration time.
  3. Personalize Your Space – Put on some of your favorite jazz or classical music. Light a candle. Release some relaxing scents. Fill the room with positive images (photos, posters, etc.), and your favorite inspirational quotes.

Following the all of the above tips will help you focus your energy on your most important asset – yourself. Make yourself and your self-care a top priority and you’ll be on your way to taking back control of your life and your financial wellbeing.

Written By Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW

You Must Find Time for Self-Care to Take Back Control of Your Life and Your Financial Wellbeing was originally published @ Financial Therapy Network and has been syndicated with permission.

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