Day 28: Be good to yourself – self care
We achieve so much in our lives, bringing up kids, climbing mountains, running marathons but we find it so hard to relax and do nothing.  The need to prove ourselves and achieve keeps us pushing the limits and makes us feel guilty if we stop for one minute.  Society has conditioned us to prove our worth through being busy, useful, needed.  Taking time out is one of the hardest but most beneficial things you can do.  Prioritising relaxation and self care makes you more alive, more effective and allows better decision making hence making life easier. 
 
Many of us feel that we can’t say no or stop for a rest.  Some see it as a sign of weakness and others view it as selfish and feel guilty.  If you take time out for yourself it’s not only you that benefits.  Imagine what a better partner, parent, worker you’d be if you weren’t stressed and tired, how much more you could give others and how much better your relationships would be.  Taking time out for yourself is anything but selfish, everyone benefits from a better, more refreshed you.  The bottom line is if we don’t make time for self care we need to make time for illness.
 
In our society we wear exhaustion like a badge of honour alongside our stress badge and think it means we’re productive and successful.  If anything it’s likely to mean the opposite.  If we work, drive or socialise without enough rest we will not be effective at any those things.  We think it’s a sign of resilience if we can handle all nighters but it’s not.  We think that working hard and accomplishing things will bring us meaning and make us happy but it could be the very thing that’s causing our unhappiness.  To be happy we need to let go of our attachment to exhaustion as a symbol of our worth, busyness as a indicator of success and stress as a sign of achievement.  We need to prioritise things like sleep, rest and having fun.
 
So today lets do that.  Todays challenge is to do something nice for yourself.  Maybe it’s take a hot bath before bed tonight.  A massage, a walk in your favourite place, catching up with a close friend, reading a good book, a yoga class or cooking your favourite meal – whatever works for you