Holistic Self-Care When Busy

When life gets busy, what is usually the first thing to go? Taking care of yourself!

Today's conversation is one where we focus on the little ways to give ourselves the proper attention and care, even in the midst of really busy seasons.

www.annamcguire.co

Transcript

Hey friends, welcome back to a nother episode of The sowhat podcast. My name is Anna McGuire. And I'm so excited to have a conversation with you today about sowing intentionally into our lives so that we can reap abundantly in the days, weeks, months, and even years to come. The conversations that you and I have every single week here on so what honestly means the world to me. And these conversations often flow from inspiration of the work that I get to do. I am a pastor, I'm a transformation coach, I get to partner with people in many arenas of life. And over the last several years, I've learned different things about people and the situations they face and the situations that I face, because I'm a human too. And I love to take those situations and have real conversations about those things, and then offer practical next steps and how to navigate those things. Whether it is anxiety, negative self talk, friendships, dating, relationships, whatever it may be, that I'm hearing people talk often about, I want to have a conversation on because I know if I'm having this conversation with one person, or I'm hearing it from one person, my guess is that there's multiple people who are feeling the same way or thinking through or processing the same things as well. Well, today's conversation has been inspired by the last few months of conversation with many people, we are in deep into 2022, which is still wild to me because I still want to refer to this as like 2020. But it's totally not 2020, I have a two year old, my son is born in 2020. Anyways, it is 2022. We're in it deep this year already, it already feels like summer is quickly coming. And then when it comes like summer's over, it's like it might as well be Christmas. And then it's 2023. With that being said, as we are getting deeper and deeper into this year, I have a lot of friends that are in ministry, a lot of friends that are in Education and Human Services. And I'm hearing a lot of the same things over and over again. And it's this conversation of not having enough time for yourself, which can be translated as not having the time to take care of yourself. Maybe you're feeling that tension to in this season, whatever it is that you may do on a day to day basis, whatever your everyday life looks like whether you're a stay at home parent, you work in a hospital, you're going to school, you're going to church, you work in some kind of organization, you work from home, whatever it may be, you might be in a space where it feels really difficult to set aside time or to have the routines in place to take care of yourself. And the conversation that I want to have with you is not one of hey, here it is, you know 15 Things to set you up to be wildly successful to take care of you now we could have that conversation. But I don't know if that would be super helpful. If you're in a spot where things feel really tight. Like you feel strapped for energy and you feel strapped for time in this season. Instead, I want to talk about simple choices you and I can make and seasons where we feel strapped for time strapped for energy. And as a result, we're giving ourselves the least. And when we give ourselves the least for chronic or extended periods of time. It comes at a cost to us. It comes at a cost to our holistic health, our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual health. It can look like it manifests in a way of anxiety,
stress, heart disease, heartburn, spiritual burnout, spiritual dryness, relational dryness, where you just don't even enjoy the relationships that once gave you so much life and joy. And I can speak to this personally just within a season it was an I want to call it a season but it was more like an extended period of time of bout two years where I did not give myself the attention and the care that I needed. And as a result, I created and developed an ulcer in my stomach, which led to acid reflux and heartburn which then created a whole slew of other issues and I was so tired and what I was lacking was just caring for myself in that season. And a lot of times we think of caring for ourselves as like a bubble bath or watching a movie that we enjoy and those can be parts of it but What I'm not asking you to do is to set aside chunks of time, like every single day to have these glamorous self care moments. No. Instead, what I want to ask you is, what are some small things that you can do to holistically care for yourself every single day, small choices, small choices. So I look back at that extended period time, because it would be like weird to call it a season because it was like two years, like I said, and I see some small things that I could have done that didn't take really much extra effort, it just would have required me to make some choices like getting enough water in every single day. Hanging out with a friend, on a reoccurring basis, like a life giving friend, on like a consistent basis, small things like that, that could have been a game changer for me. So as you're thinking about this full season you're in, in wanting to care for yourself, because you know, you got to take care of yourself to be long haul healthy, to be able to be present and available for all of the areas and facets of your life long term. So if you can, like look at your life, you are a whole person. But if you can, like look at your life like categories for a moment, like spiritual health, emotional mental health, and like physical health, like if you can look at that. And then I would add even a fourth element, which is relational health, I really do think relationships influence much of who we are. So if you look at those four areas, ask yourself, what is one thing I can do each day, or each week to serve each of those areas of my life. So spiritual health, what's one thing I can do every single day, or something I can do once a week, that would be helpful for my spiritual health. And I'll give you some examples. There spiritual health everyday could say be, I'm going to pray for at least three minutes before I go to bed. Or, I'm going to read the verse of the day from the YouVersion Bible app. Something very simple that you could do every single day to care for your spiritual health. Another example for something like you could do once a week, it could be going to a community group or small group at your church, it could be attending a service, it could be listening to a sermon, or some kind of spiritual development podcast where you are going to care for your soul and care for your spirit each week. With your emotional and mental health. Something simple you could do every single day would be to give yourself one minute before you go to bed and ask yourself, How am I really doing and you can respond in your head or you can respond on paper, you can respond on your iPhone, note, whatever it is that you want to process with asking yourself, How am I really doing, or it could be seeing a counselor once a month. Another way that you can care for yourself emotionally and mentally, is journaling. Oh my gosh, is journaling powerful, is huge. And that's something that you could do each day, or once a week. And again, it doesn't have to be super glamorous, like you're setting aside 30 time 30 minutes of time to do it. Instead, three minutes really can be powerful. How do I know that? Because some days, that's what my journaling looks like. It's like I'm getting three minutes in quick writing some thoughts down. And then the next part, your physical health, how can you care for your physical health in the season?
Well, the first thing that I would really encourage you to do is make sure you're getting at least 64 ounces of water in that is so good for your circulation, it is so good for your heart, all of your organs. And it's also great for your skin. So 64 ounces of water a day. That is one really great way to care for your body. Another thing could be is that I'm going to go on a walk 20 minute walk to three times a week, or I'm going to do a stretching class on YouTube. YouTube has some really great stretching classes by the way. Like you literally just look up stretching classes you're like, isn't that yoga? Kind of but it's a little bit different, super good for you and your body and also good for your brain. Like just giving yourself that space to relax and in process. And then the fourth area, relational health Am I connecting at least on a monthly basis with a friend or a family member? That is a life for my soul? That is a life giving for me when I'm in busy seasons honestly, one of the first things to do be compromised for me is quality time with friends. Which if you know me, I'm pretty extroverted I love quality, time, quality time is actually my like, top love language. That and words of affirmation. They're like, neck and neck. I like can't say which one's higher for me. I love quality time. But when I'm busy that is, typically quality time is typically the first thing to go for me. Because I see oh, like it's not necessary. But I can feel it. And I've actually asked Andrew to hold me accountable to this and this last season is that I make sure I'm hanging out with friends. I need to hang out with friends more because it is good. For me. It is good for me to be around particular friends, and especially in busy seasons, because it fills my tank. And it helps me stay grounded on what is important to me. I just hang out with a friend of mine, you she's been on the podcast before ally Bowman, you guys love her. Literally just like as a side note, it's like one of the most listened to episodes of all time on so what. And it was actually the kickoff for season two, if you haven't listened to it powerful, we hung out a couple of weeks ago, and life giving us I feel so good to be here with Allie. I've mentioned her in several podcasts, she's just amazing at asking good questions and checking in and like it's she's one of those people that you walk away from a conversation with her you just feel revived and seen. And that is good for me. I know that those kinds of relationships are healthy for me. And when I get busy, those are the things that I cut first, unfortunately. So I need to be intentional, in busy seasons, to care for myself in that way. So looking at four years of of life, spiritual health, emotional, mental health, physical health, relational health, what are small, small, really small decisions you can make each day or at least once a week to help care for yourself in each of those areas. This these are so important friend, to care for you to care for yourself. Because number one, you're a human. Like a lot of my friends, a lot of you that listen to this podcast, man we are in the people business we work with people day in and day out, whether it is again that were stay at home parent or we're in ministry, or we're in education, health care, whatever it may be, we work with people. And we see just how beautiful people can be. And we're like, oh my gosh, I just believe in people. And I'm a champion of people. And then we forget that we are people to that we are humans to that need love and care and attention just like everyone else. So what are small things that you can do right now in this season to care for you. Because if you want to care for others and be long haul healthy, long haul, influential, you've got to care for you. And it doesn't have to look like these glamorous moments of going to have a spa day, which you know, that's awesome if you can have that sweet. That's not really in the cards for me in this season. However, what can I what I can do in this season, is make sure that I'm spending a few minutes in prayer every day. What is available to me in this season is that I'm making sure I'm spending some time with some life giving friends. Friend, I'm always in your corner and I am cheering you
on. And I believe that God has intentional. Lee created you for such a time is this that you have incredible purpose for your life. However, I'm learning that if we do not care for our bodies and care for our minds, care for our spirits, care for our relationships, man, it can rob us of fulfilling the purpose in which God has created us for because we are left empty and tired and weary. I love you friend and I hope you're inspired today to sow intentionally small things in those four arenas in your life and as a result, you will reap abundantly that you will have strength to continue moving forward and you will feel purposed and more clear minded and what it is that you were created to do. I love you so much, my friend. I can't wait to talk to you next week.