Self Care Matters

Well, there is no escaping it, but wind and rain has told us in no uncertain terms that autumn has arrived.  And yet as I sit writing this blog, the sky is a bright and clear blue and just a gentle breeze.  However like many others at this time of year as the weather has changed I have succumbed to some sort of viral thing and so I coughing and spluttering and feeling exhausted.

I am very fortunate in that I can choose my own working hours and so I have been able to ease up and recover.   Despite this I am well aware of many who will insist on working, and who will not take care of themselves when they unwell and who as a result take longer to recover and can in fact annoy colleagues and family in the process.

In fact one of my clients that I did speak with this week, was very insistent that they would be continuing to work 60 hour weeks for at least another 3 weeks as they don’t have the staff to do otherwise and they are prioritizing their client needs.  Great if you are one of the clients, not so great if you are the spouse!  I hope that viral bugs do not interfere with the plans.

What I am trying to highlight here is that we all make choices regarding the level of self-care that we actually take and how we prioritize our self-care over the needs of others or as is often the case we prioritize the needs of others over our own needs.

However, often those choices have actually become patterns of behavior that we do not take the time to assess and evaluate and we act more on auto-pilot than conscious decision making.

As the winter draws in, and our winter patterns come back into play it is a good time to seriously consider out patterns of self-care. Many of us will choose evenings by the fire (maybe even with a glass or two of wine/beer) over being active and out and about. Equally we may change our eating habits and they too may be more or less healthy.  And then if we experience coughs and sniffles we may choose to work through them or to rest and recover.

And so my challenge to you this week is to take the time to decide your personal priorities for your self-care from now until the end of the year.  In particular as we head into the time of winter bugs and other viruses, how can you take action now to reduce your own personal risk?

In particular consider all of your usual winter patterns and assess them to see if your own actions are making you more or less likely to succumb to those nasty bugs.  So, go on set your new patterns for self –care this autumn!

Warm Wishes

Mary