Do you end your day feeling that you did nothing for yourself? Are your energies used in areas that don’t fulfill your purpose and passions? How much of your day is driven by other’s needs and wants? Do you want to say NO, but you don’t? Are you giving too much of YOU away?
The questions may sound somewhat selfish, but they’re not. They’re questions addressing your Self-Care. And depending on your answers, you may be in need of a self-care timeout! Here’s where you can realign and revisit what you prescribed for yourself, but have failed to do.
I want you to remember how much time and energy you put into reflection when you were younger. You’d think and wonder about what you hoped life could be. Then, you used that reflection as a roadmap to what you wanted for yourself. Well, it’s time for some self-reflection, some Self-Care 101. It’s time to respect your desires, honor your path, explore the things that bring you joy, and take action to get and maintain what you need most.
Your self-care timeout will help you eliminate factors that make you unhealthy and unhappy. It’s an opportunity to check on yourself. It helps you create and manage your daily self-care routine and will keep you aligned with what you’ve promised to self-fulfill. Your self-care timeout will determine if your day has enough of YOU in it. It allows only your agenda to prevail. You can make sure you’re not allowing external things to shift your day in a direction that doesn’t fit your desired outcome.
Self-care routines make your day more focused and fulfilled. Self-care timeouts keep them that way. Isn’t it time you did something for yourself? This is positive aging!
Do you know a Positive Ager? I’ll be featuring positive agers in this column. These are individuals who find age irrelevant and don’t allow it to stop them from living life to the fullest. If you know this person, please email me at positiveaging54@ gmail.com.
Pat Landaker is a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and a Senior Lifestyle Consultant. She is owner of the Living La Vida Senior brand, serves on the City of Henderson’s Senior Citizens Advisory Commission and teaches Positive Aging at UNLV/OLLI. Contact her at positiveaging54@gmail.com or visit LivingLaVidaSenior.com.