I am hearing this a lot – you eat well for 3 days of the week and the rest of the week you make poor choices. You lash out at your children or loved ones because you have built up so much stress. The coaching approach is to explore and navigate your internal motivations, strengths and vision, not to provide you with every single resolution as what works for others may not work for you. In response to clients’ interests, I am preparing content for Workshops and Group Coaching sessions to provide evidence-based recommendations on topics such as Stress Management, Mindfulness, Nutrition and Physical Activity – stay tuned!
This week, I want to share this quote that I saw and resonated with:
“You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first”
Many of you have children to take care of, parents to take care of, work and just the chaos of life, or all of the above. If you find moments during the day to rest and recharge, eat nutritious foods, exercise regularly, get adequate sleep and manage stress – all components of self care – your cup will be fuller to attend to someone else’s needs!
Prioritizing self-care prevents burnout, allows you to be more present, productive, balanced, fosters inner peace and longevity. Self care is not (just) about going to get a massage or pampering yourself. Self care is an intentional practice of taking care of your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. It is about forming healthy habits and routines that help balance your life!
The key is to create TINY HABITS (BJ Foggs). Creating tiny habits breaks down your goal into very small, achievable changes and lays the groundwork to forming new healthy habits over time.
Start with something relatively easy for you to change, and do that everyday for a week at a time. Here are some examples I wrote : (fill in the blank)
- I will do [10 squats] while waiting for the hot water to come for a shower everyday.
- I will substitute my afternoon unhealthy snack with [greek yogurt and nuts] Monday to Friday.
- I will start my mornings with [10 deep breaths] and [a glass of water] before attending to anything else.
- I will start winding down and go to bed at [10pm] starting today.
Start by choosing ONE thing TODAY you’d like to prioritize and change. WRITE OUT your tiny habit action and try doing that for one week! There is more to this, but it is a start. If we haven’t worked on this together – as a coach, I say – try, experiment, see what happens. I can’t wait to hear about it!
