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jennifer@glackenhealth.com

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Self Care for Health and Wellness

The Importance of Self-Care

Over the last five to ten years, self-care has become a buzz word. I am sure you hear about it almost daily! Originally, it meant taking care of one’s own mental health. These days it can mean a multitude of different things.

Focused intention around our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health is the definition of self-care I prefer to use. An example of self-care could be taking a yoga class, meditating for 15 minutes in the morning, or reading a leisure book for 15-30 minutes.  One of my favorite things to do for self-care is to sit down with a warm cup of the Shaklee 180 Energizing tea – my “go-to” flavor is green matcha!  Another example might be getting off the phone with someone who is negative.  Self-care could be supporting yourself instead of beating yourself up for a perceived mistake you made.  My final example of would be making a healthy recipe and sitting down to enjoy it. Glacken Health protein fudge (such a decadent, yet healthy treat), anyone?!

Many people think of self-care as a waste of time; an over indulgence focusing only on oneself.  That outlook tends to come from people who measure success by how much you accomplish each day or how well one multi-tasks. Often, society works against us pushing us to do more, not less.  We have to give ourselves permission to do less and take more down time.  Most people need some time off for their emotional wellbeing. Without it, stress and anxiety levels remain high; too high.  We all know that stress is the pre-cursor to so many health issues.  Controlling stress should be a top priority!

If you take care of others (and, so many of us do!), shifting time each day to take care of you helps you increase your ability to pour into others. In the safety demonstration on an airplane, the airline attendants tell you to put on the oxygen mask first, and then help others.  Let’s use this example in life.  We have to take care of ourselves in order to be there for others. 

Prioritizing yourself, helps you bring your best “you” to the table each day.  You get to re-charge and rejuvenate.  Start small by taking a quick walk around the block or a mini tea/coffee break. Give yourself permission to put less on your to-do list and stop multitasking!

Jennifer Glacken
CEO/President