Tag: dailyprompt

How do you practice self-care?

I would always be mesmerized by the flight attendants at an early age. The safety demonstrations though always left me perplexed. We were instructed to place the oxygen mask on ourselves first before helping others with theirs. I told my parents on an early flight that this was very selfish. I wanted to help others first. I missed the concept that I can’t help others unless I was breathing and whole. I suppose this wrote the template for my life. I grew up as an empath who would do anything for those I loved. My needs came second – if at all.

Self care was laden with guilt. You didn’t sit down to relax unless everything was done in the house. As a result I found that I couldn’t let go unless I was given permission.

Fast forward to the days when my kids finally arrived. It was a 24/7/365 marathon on taking care of two cherubs and a household. It’s what I did and I loved it. No questions asked. I threw myself into their worlds. School functions, sports, activities, scouts. Throw in the world of the PTA mom just for fun and to suck up all of my time.

Me time? What was that? I was 102 pounds heavier than my former self in college. I didn’t recognize myself either physically or mentally.

Through a PTA function I visited a Boot Camp gym with the intent to bring a new family fitness initiative to our district. What happened that night led to now years of taking care of someone I never expected – me.

One class turned into three and a year later I was taking seven classes a week. I dropped 63 pounds and was suddenly running obstacle course races all over the country.

The physical me needed a friend so we found a spirituality friend. We embarked on a new journey. We woke up at 5 am, meditated (today I completed a 1,514 day streak of meditation), packed my meal prepped breakfasts and lunches, headed to work, home to change, and then hit the gym.

Now 11 years later my self care sits in first class with me each day. I know what I need and I’m not afraid to ask for it. While I’m admittedly a bit addicted to the beauty regimen part of self care – the rest of the self care movement is here to stay. I’m now quite comfortable with putting my mask on first. You cannot help anyone in this world without allowing yourself to breathe and know who you are. That is the best self care of all.

How do you waste the most time every day?

Doomscrolling. I don’t know what I’m looking for. This ADHD brain is easily amused and can respond to shiny objects such as cute outfits, must have lip glosses, and the ultimate cure for cellulite in a jar.

It starts innocently enough with a daily Wordle game which I honestly installed to keep my brain cranking to ward off Alzheimer’s. Once the game is solved I will open Instagram and it is off to the races. I follow a VAST list of very interesting pages/people, groups, and interests which include local turned famous chefs, dancers/choreographers, authors, athletes (which include my NY Giants), makeup artists, and just about every inspirational page I have found or landed on just through doomscrolling.

Most of the time a lot of my discovery will lead to notes like this and thoughts that I put into an online journal for future blog ideas. I take screenshots of different items and surf through Pinterest, which, of course, is fueled by the algorithm from said doomscrolling. It’s all very interesting yet dangerous at the same time! I am probably a marketer’s dream in that whatever company pushes a product my way based on my clicks and interest will result in some form of a sale. If I don’t close the deal that day then I snag it two or three days later when I realize that I should’ve never passed up the opportunity to buy it in the first place. It’s a vicious cycle I tell you.

These prompts will eventually end up in a blog somewhere which will ultimately justify how I waste time during the day!

Winning!