I’ve been in a funk this past week. I’ve been working trying to work through something. Man old habits are hard to break! Truthfully, I’ve been worried. I am completely aware that worry only ruins the now and doesn’t solve the future or fix the past. I’ll tell you more about what I’ve been working through when I get there. To compound trying to work through something, I’ve been feeling a little under the weather (ahhh allergies!) and not sleeping well at night. We can call this just a general all around funk. I feel it in my body, my mind and it’s dragging my emotional well-being down with it. Have you ever felt this way before as well?

I had a moment of clarity that I felt it worthwhile to share, in the hopes that anyone else experiencing their own funk right now might be able to work their way out of it.

The laundry can wait–What can’t wait, is you taking care of you!

Feeling down in the dumps is not a good feeling, but I’d been putting pressure on myself to continue to maintain all the things (ex. Work, help with homework, make dinner, pack lunches, dishes, laundry…). The to-do list is never-ending and quite extensive when you actually write out exactly what you do or expect to get done in a day. Here’s the thing, sometimes you just can’t get it all done. You have to prioritize what needs to happen and what can wait. In evaluating my to-do list, I realized it was missing something, perhaps the most essential task. Self-care! Here’s a habit to break friends!

When you are listing out your to-do list. Are any of the tasks just for you? Something you do, not out of obligation, but for pure enjoyment?

THAT is what was missing from my to-do list this week! I didn’t have something that I wanted to do, just for me on the list. The thing you do for yourself doesn’t have to be big, expensive, or massively time consuming. Doing something for yourself doesn’t mean that you have to put all of your obligations to the side either. In Brene’ Brown’s book, Braving the Wilderness, someone gave her some great advice when she was struggling with her obligations versus her own self-care. The advice was, “[t]here is the inbreath and there is the outbreath, and it’s easy to believe that we must exhale all the time, without ever inhaling, but the inhale is absolutely essential if you want to continue to exhale.”

How profound and yet I bet you are the last person that you take care of too. We can’t expect ourselves to keep giving and doing for others when we aren’t also replenishing ourselves. So as you are thinking about what you plan to accomplish this week, make sure you’ve got something on that to-do list that is for you. Make sure it’s not at the end of the list. It’s too easy to put it off or push it to the side and tell yourself it can wait. Doing that can very easily turn into a habit and habits are hard to break, so don’t start one you’ll regret later. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, it is essential. It allows you to be better and show up better for everyone in your life. Now, go make that to-do list with yourself on top and own this week friends.