SUNNY SIDE UP | making yourself a priority

Welcome back, everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic week/weekend. My week was spent extremely busy, but this weekend went by fantastic (yet, super quick as always). I was really struggling to find a topic “worthy” of making it on Sunny Side Up this week (hence this being posted later in the day), and I don’t know how, but it just hit me out of the blue. Today I want to talk about checking in with yourself, me time, and making yourself a priority. 

As we all grow older, our responsibilities evolve, the people in our lives become more significant, and we grow over all entirely too busy, we tend to lose sight of what is important: taking care of ourselves. A lot of time it’s deemed selfish to decline something, pay attention to your needs, and prioritize yourself before others. But what a lot of people tend to forget is that you can’t complete your tasks at the best quality possible if you don’t first take care of yourself. And thus why it’s extremely important to take a few minutes a day to just be with yourself, listen to your needs, and care for your mind and body.

I learned this the hard way this year, after I stretched myself too thin and started becoming overly anxious and overwhelmed. You don’t really see it coming, it kind of just happens. You start doing more at work and school, taking on more job tasks each day, wanting to tick off your to-do list, and then you come home and you have another to-do list to complete, and before you know it it’s time to get ready for bed to then do it all over again the next day. And then the next thing you know you’re sick and on the verge of a mental break down.

And it can all be stopped with just a few simple things being added onto your schedule each day.

I think what really opened my eyes to the importance of self care was when I started practicing yoga in the evenings. Not only did it give me some me time, but it also made me start checking in with myself. I suddenly started being more aware of how I felt, both mentally and physically, and tried different methods to detoxify my mind of all the junk that filled it throughout the day. It calmed my nerves, relaxed my body, and forced me to just breathe and control my thoughts. I would definitely suggest trying yoga if you are in need of clearing your mind.

In addition, here are some things I suggest to incorporate into your routine (even if it’s only once a week) to assist you on your self-care journey.

I know it sounds like an extremely obvious thing to do, but I forget to do this a lot. I’m always caught up in my mind and To-Do list and while it’s nice to get things done, I’ll often times put things I enjoy to the side. But by putting my enjoyment on the back burner, I’m not giving my hectic lifestyle a break. I was truly surprised how much better I feel by just taking a few minutes a day to read, write for my blog, or do some yoga.

It’s always a great feeling to excel at your job, accomplish your tasks, and be on top of the game in the work environment. I know for me, I’m very passionate about my job and what I do, making it really easy to get lost in it all. In the past couple of months, we have been short staffed and I’ve had to basically take on the task of doing my job plus two other jobs each day, and while it was exhilarating at first, it quickly became draining. So I came up with some systems to make it easier. When I get to work, I already have my list of things to get done that day made from the day before, so I’m not fumbling around aimlessly to get things done. I also tend to take some time in the morning when I first get there to drink my coffee or tea and brace myself for the day. Before, I would jump straight into work, checking my emails, making my phone calls, and slamming my pile of tasks. But it’s much better to take some time to ease into the day. Same with the evening, towards the end of the day, I make sure to take a few minutes to regroup, make my to do list for tomorrow, clean up my messy desk from all that I had to do that day, and take a few deep breaths. Another tip is try not to stretch yourself too thin with work. Be honest on what things you can accomplish, set time frames and dates to get things done, and take each task one day at a time.

It’s great to have people in your life to spend time together and share memories with, but it’s also necessary to do things alone. Before recently there wasn’t really much I did without the company of someone else. However, I went to see a film alone one day and it kind of opened my eyes to the idea that being alone is nice sometimes too. So since then I always make time to have a few minutes alone each week. I get to literally do whatever I want. It’s great.

And frequently check up on them! As you all my know, I’m a lover of lists and planning. For as long as I can remember I’ve been goal-oriented. Nothing makes me happier than finding things to help improve my life. With that being said, try and take some time to think about what you’d like to accomplish, what would make you happier. Whether it’s trying a new class, wanting to learn how to cook, or finally travelling out of the country, it’s important to have things to work for, look forward to, and to keep you striving for success. But with that, comes the fact that you have to have plan of actions too. Not only do I make lists, and find a plan to accomplish that goal, but I also try to brainstorm ways to put things into my daily routine/monthly schedule to help stride towards these things.

At around eight o’clock every weekday my body/mind start telling me to get ready for the night. I try to get everything done before this time because I know once that time hits, my motivation to accomplish tasks is slim to none. I like to shower in the evenings and follow it up by a skin care routine. And then I will watch some television, read a book, or catch up on some YouTube videos. Sunday evenings, I love to take an hour for a nice bath with some candles, reading, and perhaps a face mask. This is kind of my way to say goodbye to the weekend, the week’s stresses, and mentally prepare myself for the week ahead. It definitely relaxes me down to the core, allowing my Monday morning to go a lot more smooth. Well, as smooth as a Monday can get, am I right? Most Mondays I need around four cups of coffee to get me through.

I’m not going to pretend  like this is something that I regularly practice. Matter of fact: recently I’ve been sleeping in, hitting snooze on every alarm, and waiting until the last possible minute to get up and ready for work. But I’m trying to get better at this. With that being said, I was once a morning person and it was absolutely amazing to be able to wake up three hours before I needed to be at work, take my time getting dressed and putting on makeup, make an actual breakfast, and ease my way into each day. I noticed that when I woke up early, I was more pleasant, productive, and a lot more mentally stable throughout the day. So if you’re like me right now and are struggling to get out of bed, I suggest making some changes because it will definitely help. Plus, it’ll help you feel less like a zombie and more like Beyonce.

You are your worse critic, as they say. And most of us can tend to be waaaay less forgiving with ourselves. I know it’s easier said than done, and we are all at different points in our lives. But it’s so so so important to find pride in who you are and what you look like. When you’re comfortable and happy with yourself, you exude a level of bad ass that no one can take away from you. To help me feel good about myself, I like to wear clothes that I’m confident and feel good in. Whenever I have a negative thought, I try to redirect my wording to be more positive. I accept the things that make me stand out from other people, and each day work toward loving them more and more. Basically, I try to treat myself like a damn queen, guys. It works, though. You start to be more happier, respect yourself more, and others will see you as way more radiant and confident.

Okay, guys, that wraps it up for today’s post. I hope you all enjoyed! Do you have any specific methods in your own self-care regime? I wanna know!

And as always, thanks for reading!