But, what I noticed and what I experienced first hand lately is that self care isn’t always a treat.  It isn’t always (or often)  the fun, luxurious, spacious,  F-YES choice. It isn’t always…. I booked myself a full spa day.  Hooray I am going to yoga! I am luxuriating in this amazing bath! I am laying in bed watching Netflix and ordering food in and giving myself time to just rest!  Those are all awesome options but self care is truly a lot more than that.

Self care can be delightful, feel luxurious, be spacious but it can also feel HARD, even excruitiating.  I often have to force myself to do the things that will have me feeling my best. I must take time away from other things I could be doing (and want to be doing) in order to do these things that will leave me feeling more present, more alive, more connected to myself and feeling better in body and mind.

I haven’t felt great in my body in the past few weeks.  My fibromyalgia is usually under control with how I take care of myself yet sometimes it flares up because of something I am doing or not doing and sometimes it just flares up with nothing to track it to.  When I don’t feel great in my body, it is even more necessary for me to step up and do things to help myself feel better, but it is also SO MUCH HARDER to do the all the things.  I am often so consumed with it that I can’t even remember all the things that can help me start to feel better.

What is easier, is for me to lay around feeling bad or to just push myself through the daily things I want to do.  I don’t get all woah is me, sad (anymore) but I don’t have the energy to move my body or run a bath, or cook the food or juice the juice, etc. etc. Self care doesn’t feel like a treat in those experiences.  It feels like more things I  have to force my tired, pain filled body to do while also taking care of two toddlers, running a business, running a home, tackling all of my big and small goals.  It feels like I don’t have the time or energy for self care.

Self Care is vast and so very necessary.

It means forcing myself out of my warm cozy bed to do stretches that will hurt.
It means doing arm circles to release the lactic acid in my shoulders DAILY.
It means cooking my own food with ingredients I know and trust instead of having postmates deliver thai food.
It means saying no to awesome social events so that I can nurture and heal myself.
It means drinking more than enough water to flush out toxins and get myself hydrated.
It means eating greens and other nutrient dense, detoxing foods, and healthy fats for my joints at ALL my meals.
It means pausing time to foam roll and use my massage roller. 
It means buying and taking the supplements, collagen, and magnesium that help my muscles and body tissue.
It means saying no to adventures that involve long car rides.
It means taking epsom salt baths every freaking night until I feel better and then to keep it up regularly after.
It means not drinking the wine that sounds so good at the end of the night.
It means doing 5, 10, any minutes of yoga even if my kids are there and jumping on me and yelling at me to do something else.
It means being okay with not replying to every email and text the same day they come in because I am not in the best space to reply.
It means unfollowing and unfriending accounts and spaces that make me question myself and my worth.
It means I must make choices for the best of the full me and not the tired, beat up version of me that just wants to lay in bed until it magically passes which it likely won’t unless I take action.
It means saying no to the 45 minute spin class that I love because I know I need a different type of nurturing movement right now.
It means going to bed early instead of plugging away at the work that is exciting me.

And sometimes self care for me means the opposite of all of those things!
You see, self care is all about what is best for your present self and really listening to and nurturing  your body. And BTW what works for others and what is best for them, won’t always be best for you.  So, again it means really listening and nurturing YOUR body.

For me some of the things that can feel like a treat in good times, like epsom salt baths, start to feel like chores.  Self care in a whole starts to feel like a chore and that isn’t fun.

I want  to think of self care as fun, and I want YOU to think of self care as fun, BUT I also want to be clear that it isn’t always going to show up that way.

If I truly want to feel my best, if I truly want to put all of my visions into action, if I want to be my fullest, most present and most alive self then I MUST take the best care of myself.  It isn’t just for me, it is for EVERYONE’s benefit.

And when it starts to feel hard, annoying, like a chore then I must remember this and more.  I remember that I WANT to do the things because I WANT to feel my best.

I want to be present for my life. I want to be at my best.  I want to truly live my life and not just daydream about it. So, for all of that and more I choose to recommit to taking the best care of me.

Are you with me? What practices can you recommit to or start for the first time? Where can you choose to make more time for taking the best care of you?

Here are a few ideas!
Drink more water.
Weekly epsom salt bath>
Set an in bed time (we can’t always control when we fall asleep, but we can control what time we get in bed).
Add greens to 2 meals a day.
5 minutes of mediation.
5 minutes of yoga.
Weekly meal prep to have nutrient dense meals at the ready!
Use a grocery delivery service like instacart to make meal prep easier.
Set a timer in your phone for a daily body and mind check in to see what you need and what you need to let go of!

Self care is a MUST, not just a special treat.

That being said doesn’t hurt to think of it as a treat as we do want to TREAT ourselves with the most presence and love. Just don’t put it off for when you have time, or feel you want to reward yourself.

Choose to make it part of your daily life.  Make the time to take the best care of you, so that you are available to live your best life, right now!

And for those of you who are interested and been asking me on Instagram here are some of the things I turn to when my pain flares up, and that I use for regular self care maintenance.

And also a heads up to those that may be suffering from fibromyalgia and other chronic pain I gave up gluten in 2004 and it was life changing for me.  I also need to eat good amounts of healthy fats to feel my best and regularly eating high probiotic rich fermented food also helps a ton (I just realized I hadn’t done much this past month).  Also bouncing on a rebounder is great for the lymphatic system and something that helps me feel my best and I LOVE to use an infared sauna (when I lived in LA I went to Shape House regularly and am now looking to buy my own sauna wrap like they use as it was so beneficial to me).

COME HANG WITH ME!