Self Care for the Hustlers
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Friends,
I am a public school teacher and a mom of two. Life is buuuuuuusy. I love how in the midst of an emotional breakdown due to planning, grading, conferences, behavior management and, oh yes, keeping my OWN children alive and fed, I’m supposed to somehow make space for self care. WHAT?
Self care quickly starts to feel like this extra thing instead of the break that it is intended to be.
I started trying to figure out what it was that I really needed from self care, and the answer was very clear - I needed to get back in touch with my body. The hustle puts me all up in my head space, and self care helps bring me back down and put me in touch with my soul. It’s deep and important stuff, people!
The list below is a starting point to use self care and put you back in touch with your five senses.
I’ve included links to some of my favorite things to make it a little easier for you, but I’m guessing when you start thinking about self care in terms of your senses, you’ll realize you have your own stuff.
Go with what feels good!
Smell
Candles: My sister bought me a candle called Frozen Lakeshore by Cellar Door Bath Supply Co. I’m not kidding that it is the best smelling candle EVER. I don’t even want to burn it - it just sits on my bedside table like a dish of potpourri and makes everything smell lovely.
Incense: Light a stick as you’re going to sleep and sleep well.
Lotion: Eucalyptus Spearmint in the glass bottle from Bath and Body Works - it forces me to take a breath. LOVE.
Bath Products: I have become completely enamored with DoTerra. I use their shampoo and conditioner bars: great for the environment, they smell wonderful, last forever, and my hair looks AWESOME!
Perfume: Of COURSE Clinique Happy is mine!
Sight
Marie Kondo your home. Get rid of the stuff. It is so freeing. When I look at my bedside table or my dresser and the only things I see are things that bring joy? That is self care right there.
When I think about this one in particular, I think of Mary Oliver’s poem, “Storage,” which ends like this:
Things! Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful fire! More room in your heart for love, for the trees! For the birds who own nothing--the reason they can fly.
Bring things into your home that make you feel positive when you see them. Sugarboo and Natural Life are two of my FAVORITE sites. Sometimes I get on their websites and scroll just to remind myself that life is GOOD.
Touch
Do you have a weighted blanket yet? Lying under one is like being held in a tight hug. It definitely helps relieve some of the tension and anxiety of doing the good work all the time.
Get yourself some clothes that FEEL good on your skin. I love PACT and Toad and Co. Yes, you may pay a little more, but the quality of their products, their commitment to the environment, and the softness of their fabrics? You can’t beat it AND you can feel good about it.
Also pick up some skincare products that feel good on your skin. I don’t know what it is about the texture of Clinique’s Smart Night cream, but it’s so smooth and feels so good on my skin (For some reason Amazon doesn’t have it - but this is the daytime one with SPF which is also quite good!). AND I wake up looking ten years younger…HA! They also make a wonderful face soap and their dramatically different moisturizing lotion is excellent.
Taste
I’m a chocolate girl. I’m not even going to pretend it’s healthy - I have dessert EVERY NIGHT. That said, there are some ways to make your sweet treats a little bit healthier when you need to eat your feelings:
And after you eat your feelings you can check out this other blog post about taking care of your body!
Sound
I sleep every night with a white noise machine. If you are a light sleeper who gets woken up by a car driving by, trust me when I tell you that this will give you a deeper sleep. Not so deep that you won’t wake up when you five-year old climbs in with you, but deep enough that you might feel rested the next morning anyway?
AirPods. I have strong feelings about earbuds - I gave a presentation in college about how bad they were for our hearing loss. And then I tried them. The convenience of no wires? And now they make them to adjust the sound if it’s too loud? And the sound quality - just put on your favorite song and dance it out for a minute. Two minutes and thirty seconds of pure self care, right there.
Apple HomePods have been a game changer in our house. My husband grew up in a home that had speakers wired throughout the house, and had dreams of doing that “when we grew up.” Then we found the Apple HomePods and realized we could coordinate music throughout the house WITHOUT wiring speakers and got to have music before adulting:). Whether you’re a Siri or an Alexa fan, it’s nice to have music wherever and whenever you want it.
