The Importance of Nurturing Ourselves by Shavawn M. Berry

The Importance of Nurturing Ourselves

This month’s issue of Arizona Thinking Women focuses on the very important issue of self care. It is difficult, if not impossible to continually care for others, if we do not care for ourselves. As women, we are often taught to give everything away – our tenderness, ideas, hard work, passion, love, and our ability to nurture others. We sometimes do this at the expense of our own health. We must learn to strike a balance between caring for our own lives, and caring for our children, husbands, partners, parents and friends in order to have the energy needed to care for others.

Self care comes in a myriad of forms. For some of us (ok, me) this takes the form of solitude and down time. For others a trip to see a matinee, a half hour work out, or the ability to get out of the house to sit in Starbucks and have a cup of coffee and write in one’s journal might do the trick. We may need a trip to our church, mosque or synagogue. A yoga or spin class might offer relief. There are as many different ways to relax, unwind, and lay down our burdens as there are people on the planet. Meditation, prayer, talking with close friends, sharing a bottle of wine…the possibilities are limitless as long as we do not limit them by thinking that taking any time for ourselves is selfish.

To help us to assess if we have over-extended ourselves and need to take a step back, visit http://www.myselfcare.org/self.htm (www.myselfcare.org). Perhaps there are clues in the assessment that will allow us to see the areas where we may need to increase our efforts at self care, so that we can continue to deftly handle our personal, emotional, physical, and vocational responsibilities.

In this issue we have addressed nutrition, skin care, travel, meditation, self knowledge, and the value of developing and maintaining an “attitude of gratitude.”

Every day I wake up and consider how lucky I am as a woman living in the luminous state of Arizona, one of the most beautiful, energetically vibrant places on the planet.

Let’s take care of ourselves this month! We deserve it.