Today I took a much needed mental health day, complete with an appointment to cover up my quickly multiplying "natural highlights" and get a fresh hair cut. I usually joke about the term "mental health day" but to be honest I was desperate for this time.
When I'm in the middle of an extremely difficult season {day, hour, minute} of life, I find myself becoming frustrated and hurt that those around me aren't more aware of my need for attention and rest.
Surely they can see that inside I feel like I'm about ready to lose my grip, right?
While it is great to have people around that notice our need for care, here's the truth.
They probably aren't going to do it for you.
Chances are, they are having a rough time too.
We all have our things.
For me it is the feeling of my soul being suffocated by the roles of professional, mom, wife, and artist with no white space to inhale deeply.
For you it might be the total overwhelm of the stay-at-home-mom life, the fresh and still stinging grief of a personal loss, or the worry and exhaustion that comes with having a special needs child.
The point is, you have to take care of you.
Our lives don't have a built-in self-care alarm that alerts everyone to back away and give us some space. Oh, wouldn't that be nice?
So take a mental health day, grab your favorite drink from the local coffee shop, spend some time reading an encouraging book, take a bubble bath.
Whatever feels right...whatever your soul needs to get back to some sort of balance.
If you need to set an alarm on your phone to take a break at 10:00 every morning just to stop and take ten deep breaths, do it. Leave a post-it note on your bathroom mirror reminding yourself to do that mud mask you keep forgetting about.
Take care of you.
{What's one thing you can do today to better take care of yourself? Tell me in the comments!}
XO,
1 comment:
I needed to hear this. Life has been a constant drain but yesterday I had enough. I need to figure out how I can take mental health time and take care of me. It hasn't been working out. The little time I do have to myself does not refresh me for what comes at me daily. Thanks for sharing this.
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