Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing self-care from creating a practice of self-care to taking time to check-in and see how we are doing.

This week I want to look understand how self-care or the lack of it affects your life. I’m not just talking about at home, but at work, activities, and social events.

Let’s start with looking at our daily life. Are you stressed before you even leave the house, or walk into work? Are you rushing and cutting corners trying to save two minutes? Have you put in extra hours just to be passed over, for someone who never works overtime? So how is all this misdirected energy working for you? I bet having a self-care routine would benefiting you, your work and your quality of life?

How are our daily habits supporting or hindering our self-care? Are you always eating at your desk or on the run? What are you eating, do you pay any attention? Is it real food or something packaged or fast food? Do you take a break at least a couple of times a day? Are you bringing work home? Do you check your email just before going to bed? What other habits or behavior do you have that are not supportive or have a negative impact on you?

Checking email before bed because you’re waiting to hear from a client I get, but not every night. Bad traffic can make you late for work, but you first have to actually leave earlier enough to get there on time. Eating at your desk, yes, there might be days it has to happen. All of those behaviors are fine on the rare occasion. It’s when those become the norm we get ourselves in trouble. Is there one behavior or habit you can you try to improve for your own self-care?

Here is one I have done – I was famous for running late. My husband would joke, If I said I was leaving in 5 minutes, he would expect to see me in 30 minutes. This was especially true if I was at the office working. That behavior caused stress in my relationship at home – not good.

To start changing my behavior, I started being as clear as possible with my husband on exactly how long I will actually be. Second, I look at what I’m doing and see if it’s something that needs to get done at that moment or can wait till the next day (hint -99% of it can wait) Third, I set an alarm to remind me to start shutting things down about so I can leave on time. The alarm has worked so well I’ve now started setting an alarm in the morning at home so I’m leaving the house on time. I usually set the alarm about 10 minutes before I need to be out the door, so I don’t freak out.

So what are you looking to change? How are you going to improve your self-care? Here are a few ways you can help make sure self-care is the priority and not the behavior or habit that don’t support you.

Do you have a plan in place to ensure you are getting the self-care you need?

How will you ensure and track your getting the self-care you need?

Do you have a support network that recognizes and encourages you to maintain your personal self-care needs?

How can you best support your friends/family in their self-care needs?