I joke a lot about how this past year has made me older and wiser and even though that may not be true about an awful lot of things in this world, it has most defiantly made a lot smarter about taking care of myself. I know that “self-care” has sort of become a buzzy word in this millennial generation, but it couldn’t be truer: putting self-care in the forefront of my life has made me a better person, wife and mom, so I’ll take whatever stereotypes comes my way.
Truth be told, my realization that I needed more self-care in my life started a few years ago when my eyes were opened as a young mom and wife. Instead of ever thinking about myself, I was putting everyone’s needs before mind in pretty epic proportions. I was so consumed with making sure that I was being completely selfless, that I forgot to think about myself at all – and I started to crumble. I was made all the time and starting to resent those around me who were taking all my time away from myself and it got messy.
Then I finally made the decision to start making myself important again. Years ago when I was a young Army wife and we barely had two pennies to rub together, I would just spend more time at the gym in our building, get up early to take a quick shower without a baby screaming for me and Chris would help give me time to do my nails, read or whatever I needed to do for my own sanity.
Then years passed and he got a better job and I started working almost full time and I established a self-care fund (which I wrote about on Romper) that included monthly trips to the spa, more happy hours with girlfriends, travel and fitness classes. I’m not going to lie – I got some major backlash on social media about it and it was so crazy to me because the alternative of not taking care of yourself to me was horrendous. And it doesn’t need to be expensive, it doesn’t have to cost anything – it just needs to be moments where you are taking care of your needs so that you’re able to be the best version of yourself at all times.
Experiencing life without any form of self-care made me realize just how important it really is, and it’s been a life-changing experience for me. I’m not here trying to tell you how to live your life, I just want you all to know how important you are and since our days get so filled with taking care of our little humans, our homes, and even our spouses that you need to take time for you.
So I decided that moving forward with Project Motherhood that I want this to be a big focus in my healthy life category. I want to write more about easy ways and products that are going to make all of your lives easier because it truly is life changing whenever we get that 5 minutes a day to just breathe, think about ourselves (and only ourselves) and live a healthier, happier life.
What do you do to practice self-care in your life?
Fashionably Yours,
Allison
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