The Difference Between Self-Care and Conscious Self-Care
For more than two decades now, I have been teaching and helping people worldwide to practice conscious self-care, as it is one of the keys to living authentic success in business and life. It is so much more than the general self-care most people talk about these days.
Self-care is taking care of yourself
Self-care is simply taking care of yourself, both physically and mentally. Think of it as giving your car an oil change or your phone a charge - keeping things running smoothly is important!
You can take care of yourself in many ways, such as taking a relaxing bath, going for a walk in nature, practising yoga or meditation or getting a good night's sleep.
Conscious self-care is like self-care on steroids!
Conscious self-care is a much more intentional and complex/complete approach to caring for yourself and your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being! It's like self-care on steroids!
It's important to realise that everyone's needed personal self-care routine is different, so feel free to do what works for you and make time for it in your busy schedule.
True story:
One of my clients, let’s call her Mary, is a mom of 2 teenagers with her own business. She's always been the "yes" mom, always putting her family first and saying yes to everyone, whether it's her kids, her husband or her clients and team. But she was starting to feel like a depleted, stressed-out woman in overdrive and short-tempered.
During our first session, Mary had a lightbulb moment and recognized much in my own story and realized she needed to take better care of herself to prevent worse relationships and, most of all, deteriorating health.
She had been practising general self-care, thinking that a relaxing bath or sauna at the end of the week or a shopping trip to the mall on Saturday would make up for her daily stress, struggle and sacrifice!
In our journey together, she started practising conscious self-care by paying attention to her feelings and identifying what she needed to feel better. She realized she was entitled to set some boundaries and start saying no to things that didn't align with her priorities. It needed to become a daily routine and practice.
Mary started this conscious journey, step-by-step. She started delegating tasks to her husband and kids, encouraging them to take more responsibility for their lives. She began to recognize her own needs and embrace them. She communicated her needs more clearly to her team and clients, seeing her well-being as a priority and setting an example of true leadership that gave her environment the permission to practice conscious self-care themselves!
It's like she put on her oxygen mask first before helping others. In short, conscious self-care is about being mindful of your needs and meeting them. It is about being aware of your energy output and doing more of what feeds you instead of what depletes you!
It is like being a detective on a mission to figure out what your body, mind and spirit need because YOU are in charge of your life, health and wealth!
Another thing people often think is that self-care is only needed when you're feeling down in the dumps or stressed out. That's not true – conscious self-care is also about prevention, like taking vitamins. You don't wait until you're sick to take them, right? The same goes for conscious self-care. It doesn't take much time to make a big difference; the daily little things make a big difference in the end.
By practising conscious self-care, you're taking charge of your well-being and ensuring that you're taking care of yourself in the best way possible.
Enjoy the journey!
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