Episode 42: Nurturing Yourself

Hello and Welcome to the podcast; Adventures of a New You

I am your host, Jen Parke a social worker and fellow adventurer!

This is Episode 42 of the podcast and today we are going to chat about: Rest and Nurturing Yourself

Bare with me during this episode because I know that I sound terrible but I needed to share this reminder!

If you have listened to any of the recent episodes then you know that I talk about planning for how you want to feel using energetic time management and that one of the important parts of that is being able to move and shift if you are not feeling how you want to feel.

Well something that frequently happens to us is specifically during the holidays is that that we may take on too much. From holiday gatherings to extra errands there is always something to do.

The problem is that when we do this we stop listening to ourselves. I am guilty of it too. That’s why I wanted to talk about it today. Over the weekend I was doing all the things. Saturday we traveled for football and my voice started to get scratch and I chalked it up to all of the yelling during the football game.

My dad even said something to me as the day went on checking to see if I was feeling ok. I brushed him off but should have at least entertained the idea that I may be coming down with something. Funny how parents never really stop being parents even when you are grown.

Then on Sunday I did all the things. Literally I packed the day. Mid afternoon I started feeling really drained but what did i do? Did I listen and rest or even just sit still for five minutes? No you know I didn’t. I kept on moving. Project after project.

By Monday morning I was full blown sick and kicking myself for not slowing down! On Monday it was like I hit a wall and there was no option but to rest. My body literally forced me to listen at that point.

But why does it have to get that far? Why is it so hard to listen to what our bodies tell us that we need? I received the message loud and clear by Sunday but didn’t listen.

Part of the reason is because we have been taught that resting is for the weak, or if you sleep in that you are “wasting the day away”. Those messages are ingrained into our brains. I have made a conscious effort over the past few months to slow down and literally sit down at times.

The interesting thing about this is that for me this is not something that I am very good at doing in my own home. That may seem silly or backwards but I think that having the constant reminders surrounding me that there are 7 million things that need to be done makes it much more difficult to actually rest. So if this is something that you also struggle with then find another place to rest! A friend’s home, a park (obviously this is harder now that it is winter) maybe you even just park your car and sit for a few minutes.

When my son was younger I would actually go to one of my parents' houses if I needed reinforcements or sometimes just so I could take a nap.

Maybe you take a “sick day” for yourself and you still send the kids to school. Maybe you schedule a night each week with no activities and you come home from work and get right into your pjs and you just relax. Maybe you keep a weekend free from activities. Or you schedule time on sundays.

All of this comes back to setting boundaries with yourself and with others. Remembering to say no sometimes when your schedule starts to look overloaded. Or remembering that it is ok to cancel an activity if you are not feeling well. You all know that if you tell your friends your sick they want nothing to do