Self Help

                                            Photo by Beatriz Pérez Moya on Unsplash

 

Self Help books are everywhere. Instruction manuals for how we should care for ourselves. Why in this day and age do women need to be told to be taking care of THEMSELVES? Because we are the last person we take care of. We need our kids to thrive, our spouse to succeed, and ourselves to be burnt out at the end of the day. We struggle, we drag ourselves day to day, we are up first and to bed last, we are warriors who are cracking in their armor. 

 

Today's world is full of ideas and tips on fast cooking, how to make our kids succeed, how to not procrastinate and how to self help ourselves. Why do we need to make spaghetti sauce from scratch? Why do we sew holes in items we could just toss away? Why do we clean and cook and drive everyone everywhere, but when it comes to taking self care into consideration we are lacking? We then buy books, dinners out, take classes on cooking, we do everything but again self care.

In a world full of constant communication, a world spinning so fast that self care looks like a blurp on our back window, in a world racing towards something spectacular, why can we not sit and rest? I work with children and what amazes me most about them now is that they simply cannot sit still. Their hands have to be going , their mouths never stop, they are a blur of arms and legs as they run past us to the next best thing. We are raising children today who do not know how to self care.

What would self care look like for you? Perhaps make a cup of tea and finish it when it is still hot. Perhaps a new journal, getting up fifteen minutes early and writing out your goals for the day, a dream you want to achieve before you die, or simply that you want to leave the house in clean clothes. Dreams come in all shapes and sizes, self care comes in them too. Maybe trade off days with a friend on watching each others kid for a few hours a week to go get your hair cut, buy something for yourself, or simply browse through a library and find a magazine to look through from cover to cover in peace and without spit up on you.

Self help books can be helpful, but if we each take care of ourselves, or perhaps a friend, then we become the self help, we help our self! We strive to make the day a little better by noticing a dress and complimenting someone, perhaps buying a book you know a friend would love, maybe it is just buying a candle, sticking it in a cupcake and making a wish. We can all self help ourselves with slowing down, relaxing more, enjoying life and putting priorities in order again. Our children are suffering for all this constant overload and perhaps we need to help this next generation growing up to self help themselves into some relaxation and calm before we are all to wound up to ever relax again.

Just a little something to chew on. We do not always need bigger faster newer, sometimes we need smaller, slower, older and that is okay. Take a little time to self help yourself to tea and a biscuit and relax. Comment and let me know what you do to self help yourself. I would love to hear it.

Have a great relaxing day!

Your storyterller.poet,

Debbie

xo