Are you feeling as if all this heat from the summer days is playing the role as a big contributor to not engage in self-care? If you are please don’t feel guilty about this because you are not alone. All the heat has been more than enough reason for me to hide away in my home I stead of being out in the sun, even if only for 15 minutes.
Not only had the heat been a big reason why I’ve been avoiding going outside lately, but it’s also been the reason I’ve been hiding away in my basement all summer. The heat can be felt literally from corner to corner, of every corner in my house, except for the basement.

You may be wondering why the basement is such a bad place to hide away. Well the answer is simple. My basement is very, very small which means that there are literally very few things that I am able to do. I can’t do yoga, I can try to meditate but because the basement is hated among 5 different people finding that peace and quiet pretty much doesn’t exist. I can’t work out because u have very little room to move, and I can’t even read a book because my basement has no windows, and the lights circuits do not work.

Are you starting to see my problem here? Well my very limited ability to consistently engage in self-care while I hide away from the sun in my basement gave reminded me of the limits that I was putting on myself. I had limited myself in being able to engage in self-care because of the simple fact that I had very little room to participate in the self-care activities that fulfill me.

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Take a moment and breathe. Close your eyes and think about the last time you put yourself first. Think about the last time you spent an entire day focusing on yourself and nothing else. Think about the last time you were stress and worry free. Got that moment in your minds eye? If so, I want you to hold onto that moment and think about how you felt. How do you feel now that you are reflecting back on that moment?

If you feel relieved, less stress, and at peace with that moment chances are you really were putting yourself first. That’s a good feeling to have and I encourage you all to embrace it more often. When we put ourselves first we are actually taking the time to focus on our overall health. This includes our physical, emotional, and mental health. Mental health is on the rise and honestly, it’s one of the biggest parts of our health that we are taking for granted.

Mental health has a negative stigma attached to it but it doesn’t have to. Yes, it is true that often times mental health refers to a mental illness of some sort. However, I’m here to tell you different. It’s important to acknowledge that mental illness is a part of one’s mental health, but it is also important to understand that mental health is not solely about mental illness. Mental health as a collective is the psychological well-being of an individual. This includes one’s psychological state in regards to emotions and behaviors.

So when you think back about the moment when you put yourself first, understand that you were not just putting yourself first but you were putting your mental health first. When we put our mental health first, or at least take the time to take care of our mental health, we are checking in with ourselves. When we check in with ourselves we are evaluating our current state of emotional, psychological, and behavioral presence, and resetting these three states to prepare for the next moment that is to come. [Read more…]