Self-Care is a popular catch phrase that we hear a lot these days. Usually, the phrase conjures images of wealthy people luxuriating in expensive surroundings. In this episode, we explore how critical self-care is to our wellbeing. Taking care of ourselves by eating nourishing foods, moving our bodies, getting enough rest, and setting boundaries are all examples of vitally important self-care. When we think about it, self-care is a fundamentally vital part of our spiritual practice and essential to living happy healthy lives.
Self-Care is a popular catch phrase that we hear a lot these days. Usually, the phrase conjures images of wealthy people luxuriating in expensive surroundings. In this episode, we explore how critical self-care is to our wellbeing. Taking care of ourselves by eating nourishing foods, moving our bodies, getting enough rest, and setting boundaries are all examples of vitally important self-care. When we think about it, self-care is a fundamentally vital part of our spiritual practice and essential to living happy healthy lives.
Hi, I'm Laura Pallatin. Welcome to The Practically Spiritual Show, where we break out of cultural and religious indoctrination and create our own personally fulfilling life.
This episode of the podcast, I am going to be focusing on self care. Now that is a very popular phrase these days, and it kind of brings to mind wealthy people luxuriating in spas. And what I'd like to propose is that. Self care is an extremely important spiritual practice, it is so much broader than going to a spa someplace.
I'm going to be looking at mind body spirit from a completely different perspective. So let's listen to the theme song, and I'll meet you on the other side.
Welcome to the Practically Spiritual show. Together we will learn, laugh, and grow. Break indoctrination, rise above our nation, and soar.
Welcome to the Practically Spiritual show.
So is self care really a spiritual practice? I'd say absolutely, yes. Few things we do in our life are more specifically spiritual practices than self care. Every single life that happens on earth is important. Whether that life lasts for 10 minutes, 10 years, 10 decades. It matters. We all come here with a mission of some kind.
Taking care of our body, spirit, and mind helps us to be ready to rise to the occasion when opportunity presents, whether we realize that's what we're doing or not. Self care is a very popular catchphrase right now, but what does it really entail? Based on social media posts, you might be thinking of expensive spa treatments on a beach or decadent meals and an extravagant vacation.
In reality, self care is much more simple and fundamental than influencers would have us believe. Self care is, simply put, learning what our individual body, spirit, and mind needs to be healthy and robust, and then making time to fulfill those needs in loving, supportive ways. It's the gentle art of caring for ourselves.
Kind of sounds like something you'd do for someone else, doesn't it? I think it's actually helpful to externalize yourself from yourself in order to really dial in this process. Of course, no one knows us better than ourselves, right? But we're also the same people who will continually ignore warning signs and assume we can handle pushing through more work, responsibility, worry, expense.
I think you see where I'm going with this. We can always take on more without stopping to love, appreciate and nurture ourselves. So let's start with looking at our bodies. These are the vessels that we use to interact with people, to make a difference in the world, to create the work that we're here to create.
They are our tools for interacting with the world, and even though sometimes some of us wish we could trade them in for a different model, so far, that's not an option. So taking care of the body that you're issued at birth is extraordinarily important. First, I want to talk about food and other things that you take into your body.
I know people who are vegan. I know people who are on, like, an Atkins style protein based diet. I have friends that cannot tolerate gluten, and other people who basically live on pasta. So, I am not going to sit here and try to tell you that there is a diet that is the diet for everyone, or even anyone, because it's just not true.
It's something that evolves throughout life and something that you have to learn for yourself works for you and what doesn't work for you. That being said, I do believe in variety. Um, I had a massage client years ago who was in her 80s and she had a specific diet that she liked to eat. She just liked to eat the same thing every day.
She didn't want to think about it. So she always had the same breakfast. She usually had the same lunch and had some variety with dinner, but not a lot. She became allergic to food, which happens more than you might think, and she worked with a doctor and a nutritionist and what finally ended up saving her life, and this woman asked me specifically to share this story with others because it was so impactful for her, what ended up saving her life was variety.
So she did not eat the same food twice in a week. If she had rice on Monday, she didn't get rice again until the following Monday. And by having variety in her life, she became a much healthier person. If you think about that logically, Our bodies are the building blocks, you know, you are what you eat, right?
But specifically, what you put in your mouth and chew up with your teeth and then digest with your body is literally the building blocks that you use to create the body that you're living in. And by giving your body a variety of items to choose from as building blocks, you are... Creating a healthier body.
So try to keep in mind that as much as you love falling back on the same breakfast and the same lunch and familiar dinners, offering yourself a healthy variety that works for your body, is better than narrowing in on one thing that is just convenient.
What we put on our skin is nourishment. What we use to wash our hair is nourishment. If you choose to take a bath, what you sit and soak in, all of these things make a difference. So you just want to be mindful of that shampoo that you're using on your hair, what cream you're putting on your skin, and certainly what food and water you put in your mouth.
Now let's talk about Exercise. Everybody loves this, right? A long term commitment to caring for your body through exercise and movement is vitally important to your overall health. When we're exercising, we're more likely to take care of ourselves in other ways as well.
I'm not talking about the no pain no gain type of working out, at all. Unless you're into that. I don't know. My 84 year old mother lives in one of those retirement communities where everybody has to be over 50 to live there. And there's a lady that lives there that's 94 years old, and she gets out and walks miles a day. She is spry, her brain is working great, she's doing terrific.
Um, she's an inspiration, quite honestly. Now, not everybody can get out and walk miles a day. It's just not practical for everyone, or even most people, especially at that age. But there is a distinct difference between the people that get out and walk, or do Tai Chi, or some kind of exercise, as compared to those who do not.
It's
kind of common knowledge, right, that taking care of your body is helpful to your spirit and your mind. We're all integrated, right? And there is something very important, and... Self affirming, of putting aside the time to take care of your body, and you may feel like you don't have the time. Well, I recently heard about a study that was done independently in Australia and Japan, where they had college students perform one bicep curl.
And, you know, we usually think of that as pulling the weight up, and in this particular study, they had the students do the opposite. So they helped them raise it up, and then they slowly lowered it down. And they did the maximum weight that the college students can handle, but only one, and they found a significant increase in their strength.
One bicep curl every day. And they saw a 10 percent increase in strength in just one month. So roughly one minute a day, five days a week, that's the increase in strength that they saw. It was significant. Significant enough. To have the story get all over NPR, right? Of course, this is just an interesting study and proves a point, but what I hope we can take away from this is that even minimal time commitment paired with intention and our commitment to ourselves can have huge benefits over the long run. I'm talking about caring for your body gently, lovingly care.
Personally, I find walking in nature brings together a calming element with the moving my body element, that is incredibly helpful. I love how the two can work together, so it's not mutually exclusive. Talking about body now, but certainly loving yourself is such a gift that there's.
There's no way to separate it all out, right? We say body, mind, spirit, but we know they're all linked together.
Another thing that is really important for your body is getting enough sleep. And there's also been studies done that show that having rituals that you do to prepare yourself for sleep can be very helpful. Don't underestimate the value of creating a comfortable, safe, nurturing space for you to sleep.
Surrounding yourself with people that are loving and supportive of you is also really helpful for your body because you'll have less anxiety and more happy chemicals coursing around in your brain. If you know me at all you know that that includes snuggling my puppy dogs because I just love them and there's plenty of happy chemicals to be found there.
But having interactions with Human beings that are positive, uplifting, and supportive of you and your lifestyle, also incredibly valuable. Let's talk about the mind now. We are living in a time where we are absolutely bombarded with information, right? And it's very easy to spend our time looking online, uh, comparing ourselves to other people, getting involved in a whole lot of "shoulds."
I've heard it called "shoulding" all over yourself. And this is just extremely dangerous. It's toxic and it's never helpful. There's a real challenge, isn't there, between feeling like you need to stay aware of what's going on politically and socially in your life, and sort of filtering out the very worst of it so that you are not bombarded with it at all times.
Because it's overwhelming, and quite honestly, there's a whole lot of it that we don't have a lot of control over. So the first thing I would like to suggest is that you consider setting up some kind of filter. When you start to feel upset by the news or overwhelmed by what other people are sharing with you, it's really okay to stop and just end it.
And I'm talking about people in your life, too. We are not obligated to be anybody else's garbage can. And if you have needy friends who seem to call you every time their life hits the fan again, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. We become the filter for their lives. We become the buoy that keeps them from drowning.
And sometimes, just knowing that we're there gives them permission to continue making these same terrible choices time after time after time. And the very best, most loving thing we can do is to stop being there for them. Now, I personally like to Let people know, " hey, I'm having a rough time right now, and I am just not going to be able to be there for you in the same way that you're accustomed to me being there, because I got to do some taking care of myself."
In this way, you're role modeling for them what self care looks like, and you're setting a boundary. I knew a woman in California who... She had such a great phrase for when she needed to set a boundary with somebody who was sort of accustomed to just being in her life as much as they wanted. And she would just stop them and say, "Hey, that's not going to work for me."
You're not accusing them. You're not telling them that they're not good enough for you or that you're too good for them or anything like that. You're just letting them know that at this point in your life, this interaction, it's not working for you, and I know that this can be really difficult, especially where family is concerned.
Another phrase that is real helpful is just to say, "I trust you to handle this. You've got this. I don't feel like I have any more input for you. I believe in you." This may not be something they want to hear, and you may even get some pushback, but that's okay.
Role modeling caring for yourself in front of people that seem to have a really hard time doing that, That's helpful too, being a person that takes on other people's negativity and it starts to destroy your own life. What are you role modeling there? Is that what you want to share with people you love?
Sometimes it's easier to flip things around and to see ourselves from the outside in order to justify healthy behaviors. So as you're working on this mind element of caring for yourself, I hope that you look at what you're taking in, what books you're reading, what podcasts you're listening to, what kind of music you listen to, as well as your personal interactions with your friends and family, because this is going to make a difference in your brain.
We actually wire our brains to work a certain way. And when we're constantly in survival mode, that's the kind of wiring that we end up with. It's easy to see life as something to survive, especially if that's been something that you've been doing all your life. And quite honestly, Feeling like a person that is good at surviving can make you feel powerful, but it can also be a barrier between you experiencing opportunities to thrive. Sometimes we have to step away from survival in order to step into thriving.
Finally, I'm going to touch just briefly on spirit, because that's one of the most important things about my podcast, right? Talking about... Releasing indoctrination, so recognizing when you see something in your life that's causing you anguish or discomfort, and recognizing that this isn't even something that you believe, that you brought into your life, and that you want to cultivate.
It's actually something that was put upon you by someone else.
So I think breaking indoctrination. is an extremely important part of building the spiritual life that you want to build. Next, of course, comes what do you believe in? What do you want more of in your life? There are two forces in the universe. There's fear and there's love. Everything that we associate with hate, anger, destruction, all of that comes from fear.
We go to war over fear. We other people, based on fear, we're afraid we're not going to get enough of what we want. We're afraid that we're going to lose what we have. All of this comes from fear. As much as I possibly can, I try to live my life from the perspective of love.
Every book I write, every podcast I make, every piece of art I share with the world. When I hold the door open at the grocery store for somebody that's struggling. When I offer a kind word to somebody that looks sad. Every single action I take on purpose. I want to be from a place of love. And just like I said in the last segment about wiring our brains for positivity, this is an excellent example of how we can wire our brains for love.
And you will see this in your life directly. Two people can look at the exact same situation. And one is going to see love, and the other is going to see fear, because that's how they wired themselves to perceive the world. And you have that choice, and you make it over and over and over. And as you make the choice for love, your spiritual vibration will naturally rise.
I start off every morning with some time by myself. And I use my imagination to see myself accomplishing what I hope to accomplish with a day. That's my morning meditation. It's not very fancy. It's not very sophisticated. It's just what works for me. I like to climb back into my bed in my little spot by the window.
Usually have a couple of dogs close by. And I close my eyes and I think of all the things I hope to do in that day. I see myself accomplishing them, and I see myself smiling. If I'm going to get to see somebody I love, I imagine myself in that moment, hugging that person that I love. In this way, I create the anticipation of having positivity as my day unfolds.
It's equally as powerful to dread your day. So considering the fact that you have this power to sort of self create the day you're going to have, I hope you can envision taking the time to imagine even potentially unpleasant and uncomfortable situations going in a positive way.
Maybe you have anticipation of a situation that could be bad, that could be unpleasant. If you can put yourself in that position ahead of time, interacting with the person that could be challenging, finding out some news that you're maybe really worried about, and just imagining it going better than you think it will. By the time you get to that moment in your day, you're already pre programmed, for lack of a better way to describe it, to have it go better than you thought. This helps with anxiety, depression, and so many other things.
Just want to say, nothing that I share here is designed to replace a medical doctor. If you're suffering from depression or anxiety or something that you feel a doctor would be helpful with, I hope you seek that out, because you know what? You're worth it. You deserve it.
All of this mind, body, spirit, advocating for yourself, taking care of yourself, and more is self care. And so is standing up for yourself, expecting what you deserve and declining what you don't want. In short, self care is being your own advocate and taking action on what is best for you.
And I hope that this little podcast Encourages you to start thinking about this and taking actions that are good for you because I love you and you totally deserve it. This brings me to the end of the self care podcast. If I touched on something that you would like me to expand on, I hope you reach out to me.
I make it real easy. I'm on social media. I have a website for me and my art called laurapallatin. com, but I also made one just for this show called thepracticallyspiritualshow. com
Honestly, if you have any feedback that you'd like to provide about the show, I would really love to hear it. And I'm just going to put this out there, if you know somebody that you think would benefit from hearing my podcast, I would be I would be just thrilled if you would recommend it to them.
Oh, and I'm starting a newsletter to build a community of like minded people who are interested in leaving, um, indoctrination behind and creating our own personal spiritual life. I, I think that it would be really cool to have a community around that. So, I'm starting a newsletter and I'm going to do it on Substack because they have a lot of really great tools for creating a community.
If you'd like to be a part of that, please, please let me know. And remember, as always, To take care of yourself and remember, there is no them. There really is only us.
Thanks for listening to The Practically Spiritual Show.
I mean it. Thank you so much for sticking around to the end. It means so much to me. I love you. See you next time. Bye bye.