Self Care That I DON'T do

And that I DO do!

Hey cutie pies, the reason I'm posting today instead of Sunday is that Sunday was my birthday.

I'm eighteen now and quite honestly can't believe it. Seventeen flew by quicker than I could have imagined. As Frank Sinatra sang, it was a very good year. I want to begin this post with a reminder to look back on the year that you've just created with adoring eyes. Recognize what you accomplished, who blessed you, who you've blessed, and who you've become. This world is yours, and everyone else's, so take good care of yourselves and them too.

Now, onto self care that I don't do. This morning I awoke at 6am to my alarm and half expectedly attempted to stay awake. I knew that yesterday had been physically tiring, a four hour trail ride on my sweet grey horse Lina and a good swim wore me out. I'm not sure if you're aware but riding horses, especially in the mountains, is a killer workout. This peach and back and these thighs and abs are beat like meringue. This morning I knew that my body needed rest and I also knew that I wanted to wake up early so that I could go to sleep at 5pm in preparation for tomorrow's 2am shift. It's 4:30 as I'm writing this, so we're getting close to my originally planned time for bed and that's perfectly relevant to the idea of this post. This post is inspired by time, specifically the time that I woke up, the time that I spent getting an extra hour of sleep, and the time that I'm taking now to write this.

After turning off my alarm, I opened my eyes and focused on remembering my odd little dreams from the night to keep me awake. But the tiredness persisted and I knew that I could get up and get moving, that it would benefit me to, but that my body could also use some more sleep. It was a win win. So I let my body decide, I laid there thinking about dreams sleepily, and when my body drifted to sleep again, I felt good about it! 7am rolled in and I felt splendid, opened my eyes and lifted the blinds all the way up, refreshed, more rested, and at peace that I did what my body told me to and still woke up early. This morning I realized just how important that was and that's why...

This post is dedicated majorly to the self care that we DO NOT DO.

---

On the web or in a conversation about self care, people often mention their lovely little rituals:

Baths with candles, baths with salts, baths with bombs, drinking plentiful amounts of water throughout the day, morning walks, writing notes on their mirror, cleaning, and more and more and more. All of these of which are lovely ideas for some people at some points in life.

Today's lesson is that some self care is not always the best care for yourself. If you are struggling to pay bills, daily baths may kick up your water bill and not benefit you as much as they benefit other people or you at a different point in time. If your job requires you to be on the road a lot, drinking tons of water might result in frequent trips to the loo and be more of an inconvenience than care. The list goes on. The truth is that your method of self care is prescribed only to you. Don't take everyone's advice and don't expect them to follow yours.

And you know what else? It goes deeper than that. Remember that as the advice from other darlings might not always be your best consult, your thoughts don't always know what's good for you either. You may want to care for yourself with bubble baths and creamy cake, you may want to care for yourself with an admin day of busy, hard work, and your wants might not at all what you actually need. Listen to your intuition and oddly enough, other people may be exactly the answer. Sometimes you can be too close to the situation and might want to spend the whole day in bed, but need your momma, husband, or dog to say "GET UP AND GO OUTSIDE." Because maybe you need sunshine instead, vitamin D. If you feel like you need rest, you probably do, but it's not always in the form you expect.

This happened to me last week.

I was feeling quite drained, my job is pretty exhausting with its 50 pound bags of powdered sugar, constant use of rolling pins, wack hours, and stress of being new and inexperienced. On work days I often feel like my body and mind just need to take the rest of the day off. And I think they do. Most of the time mom is beat too! So we lay in her room together and watch our show, giggle and have cheesecake (which is another post to be written: feeling eating), and relax. Truthfully though, that doesn't make me feel all that much better! Yes I conserve energy but I also feel sluggish, lazy, and unfulfilled. There are so many aspects to our health and happiness, so it makes sense that out of the so many kinds of rest, we require a very particular kind.

---

The best days to me are the days like today where I made the decision the night before to go to sleep early so that I could get up early, while still listening to my body when it told me I needed a tiny bit more sleep, got moving immediately by doing something that I loved, then went straight to the shower to get ready for the day, visited my grandma, did a piece of a craft, had taco salad for lunch, went to the store and checked off all of my To-Do's for the day, and am now ready for bed after I post this.

The effects are marvelous and honestly if I weren't in tune with my intuition I wouldn't have days like this often and I wouldn't really know that it even was marvelous. So if you don't know where to start, get in tune with your intuition. Anyway, back to the effects:

Listening to body = Feeling well rested while still having time in my day.

Getting straight into productivity = Feeling immediately motivated, fulfilled, and ambitious.

Getting ready for day = Feeling beautiful, confident, and prepared for whatever comes next.

Doing what I love = Acknowledging to myself that my passions are important and deserving of time.

Visiting grandma = Keeping strong bonds and connections with loved ones, feeling happy after giving her the birthday gifts mom and I picked out, and receiving the cutest birthday bracelets for my own!

Crafting = Feeling soothed because diamond painting is therapy at it's finest, cultivating artistic ability, and having fun.

Taco Salad = A well balanced meal to give me a good tummy, good energy, and good day.

Going to the store = I always run into friends and sweet people at the store so that's reason enough, but it also kept me physically taken care of.

Completing To-Do's = Feeling accomplished and secure in knowing that my bathroom is clean and I've taken care of all of my nagging tasks. Boy, that feels good.

Taking moments throughout the day to love on and walk Moose = Feeling like a responsible dog mommy, and having that warm sensation of nurturing someone.

Those are a whole bunch of examples of self care just from today! There's so much more to talk about too, but these are some big ones to start with.

---

Now remember earlier when we talked about those lists of "Self care practices to do every day" on the web or wherever, lists that I've made in this post even. Let me spill my whole collection of self care that I DON'T do for you!

Ally Mia does NOT:

1. Kill it in the gym. Honestly, it just isn't my thing. I'm not someone that gets a super thrill from breaking PR's and an insane sweat. Exercise is very important to me. Sometimes I do a crazy HIIT session or a hard run, but I'd rather take it a bit easier with yoga, walking with short sprints, resistance bands, bodyweight workouts, and light weights.

2. Have strict schedules OR field days. Last year I took it upon myself to find my sweet spot between a planned out schedule and a free day. At this moment, this week actually, I feel like I've truly mastered the planner. For me the best balance is a realist To-Do, and flexibly timed day. I put things in order of how I'll probably go about my day but take the times quite lightly. Here's an example:

3. Watch a lot of TV. It just makes me feel gross. Whenever I try to rest by laying down and chilling out, I honestly feel worse! So I usually go for a light walk instead, lay out by the pool, read, take a catnap, or do something relaxing with family. Those activities are restful but also energizing. They leave me feeling better.

4. Worry about things! I can have a tendency to get really anxious, but I've trained myself to be able to steer clear of any worry in a lot of situations. Being cautious can't be beneficial. It is self care to recognize what's possible and what could go wrong. It's self care to be realistic, but I often try not to be. I let myself forget about the scary things or what could go wrong, and I become childlike again; wildly carefree.

5. Skip out on reflection for the sake of peace. Anxious worries are one thing, reflection is a whole new garden that I water and feed earnestly. While peace is a treasured commodity in Ally's collection of flowers and vegetables, mirrors are set along the garden stones as well. A garden is for growing as much as it is for delighting in beauty. That being, I journal in two ways: with "Weekly Logs" where I write the dates from Sunday to Saturday and set aside a space for each day's details and memories; and with "Streams of Thought" where I write about whatever is in my mind and has been that day, month, or year. These both help me to recognize my strengths and shortcomings in short and long-term ways. I love them.

6: Worry about making everything beautiful. It's fun and lovely to beautify but therapeutic to not worry about it too.

Well, that's all honey! It'll be about 5:45 when I get this uploaded, not too shabby for bedtime. I hope this post has been of value to you. Please like it, comment any questions or thoughts, share it to someone you think could benefit, and check out my other posts if you enjoyed. I love you! Have a blessed day you cutie.