Self-Care Begins With Self-Awareness

Happy Spring!

(A mural near United Nations in NYC)

I'm so excited that it's that time of the year again! Spring is my most favorite season :) As the days start to get longer, my body begins to thaw and emerge from the shadows of dark and cold winter. I notice this newfound vigor to engage with life once again.

I think spring could be a great time to finally implement all the self-reflections we go through during our hibernation in winter. And in this blog post, I wanna talk specifically about how we can use this change in weather to make some meaningful changes in our lives as well.

Someone wise once said "Self-care beings with self-awareness", (I am pretty sure I came up with this quote but don't wanna run the risk of plagiarism so will go with someone wise :P) and to make any meaningful changes in our lives we must first understand and accept who we really are (self-awareness)!

I don’t think I would be taking any liberties if I said that most of us are not aware of what is going on with us or our bodies and when we do realize that something is off, we are very quick to find excuses/rationalizations for our behavior = hence no real change occurs. Most of us who have some type of chronic condition are very well aware of how lifestyle factors impact our health; however, we can find ourselves saying things like:

• I can’t exercise because I don’t have time or ⁣

• I don’t have access to a gym

• It hurts if I attempt any exercises (not my intention to dismiss anyone’s pain) etc.⁣

• I have too much on my plate and can’t really find time to prepare a healthy meal

And at the risk of sounding preachy, you’ll find me saying things like:

• Self-awareness is everything ⁣

• No one can know your body/mind better than yourself⁣

• 𝘗𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 and find what works and what doesn’t for your unique body instead of following my instructions to the ‘T’⁣

• I am here to guide you and aid in the recovery process, not to 𝘧𝘪𝘹 𝘺𝘰𝘶. ⁣

And I can assure you that you will find yourself much more empowered if you take an active role in your recovery and pay attention to not just your body but also the circumstances that affect it and the excuses your brain comes up with that keep you from making successful changes.

I recently had this ‘Aha’ moment when I realized that I am looking for excuses only because I didn’t want that thing ENOUGH! Although I’ve been trying to make some changes in my life, they didn’t really happen until I became aware of my brain’s tricks and finally rid myself of these excuses and really decided from deep within that was what I wanted to do. ⁣

Trust me, all the pressures lifted off and I feel so much clearer about my decisions. And since then, I feel more aware of the excuses I make (to myself) that act as my 𝘣𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘳𝘴 and this awareness alone has enabled me to work with a lot more 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘺. ⁣