Before you start reading, I want you to stop right now in this moment.
Take a breath in and out. Close your eyes if you need. Let yourself sit for a moment and pause life.
Okay, now let's go. We are going to touch on something that I've been battling this past month : SELF CARE AND REST.
First - I want to really make something clear. Self-care and resting is by far one of the most important things I believe we can do, especially as women. It also seems to be the number one thing we procrastinate doing during our week.
Second- Self-care and resting does not make you lazy!
I am all about girl power and changing the way society sees women. But- within the awesome female empowerment movement, somewhere we created a notion that's impossible for us to measure up to.
Yes, you can run a blog. You can have a great career. You can be a CEO. You can be a mom. You can be the PTA president. You can start a podcast. You can run an online boutique. You can be the founder of a nonprofit. You can plan social parties for all your friends and you can be the lady in charge of the book club.
But just because you CAN, doesn't mean you HAVE to and SHOULD.
I know, I try to hit this measure of success everyday.
Did I check off all the tasks and solve all the problems for the day? If yes, well then I can take a moment for self care.
If I did not, well then heck no I'm not taking a moment for me? That would make me an unproductive woman and in today's culture woman are supposed to be saving the world now, so I can't take any down time or else I have failed.
Does anyone else think like that above? I hope I'm not the only one who feels this way.
After a great realization and my husband telling me to slow down, I forced myself to rest.
And can I tell you something? It did wonders for me, my heart, my mindset, and my relationships. When I am able to slow down and take care of myself - I am a better Caroline. I begin to spend time with the Lord and become who he created me to be.
Below are the 3 ways I slow down and rest:
1. Above all else, spend time taking care of yourself spiritually.
I am the biggest culprit of not doing this.
I am the happiest when pouring the love of Christ into others, but we have to think of our souls like a cup. If we are always pouring out...at some point it's going to run empty.
We have to take care of our hearts and equip our soul with the promises and truths of Gods word first. If we don't find rest in the Lord first, our human nature will begin to run ourselves tireless trying to find rest in a thousand other things with no fulfillment.
2. Take care of yourself mentally.
For me, this looked like slowing down for a little with the blog and Instagram. Too quickly social media can take over our every thoughts.
"Have I posted recently? Am I posting enough for the blog to gain traffic? Am I posting content people actually care about? Look at how many followers that person has. I need to do that, I should do this."
The thoughts are endless. So I took a solid 30 day break from writing, posting, and obsessing over what my next move is going to be.
3. Take care of yourself physically.
To be honest, sometimes this part gets a little expensive. From gym memberships to regular pedicures, it starts to add up - but find out what you love most and make it a priority.
I never had my nails done because I didn't want to take time or money painting them, so I took myself to TJ Maxx and bought three pretty OPI colors. Finding colors I LOVE and actually want to try out made me get excited to take care of myself every week.
Though it's little, it's so worth it.
I hope you can slow down and find some time to breathe. If you have any other ideas or way you rest comment them below!