It’s a part of life as a parent that we kind of get used to. When we end up buying our kids everything and look after everybody in the household, we slowly start to avoid prioritizing ourselves. But when we’ve spent so long looking after everyone else, we can almost forget how to look after ourselves. This means that we have to prioritize ourselves in certain ways. And while there are so many different approaches out there, arguably the best way to bring yourself back into the swing of things when it comes to looking after yourself is to treat yourself. So with this in mind, how can we begin to break the cycle of negativity of ignoring our needs and prioritize what we want again?
Buy the Things You Know Are Treats
Whether it’s preparing a nice lunch for yourself or purchasing plush hotel bedding you’ve been lusting after to make your home feel like a spa. By getting the things that are for you and nobody else will feel like you’re being naughty and you don’t deserve it. But if you pretend like you’re doing it for someone that you care about, this can help to avoid the guilt component when you treat yourself. When you start to pretend that you are someone that it’s worth making some nice food for or indulging in a nice gift, this can become part of you again. The guilt subsides and you start to enjoy being able to treat yourself.
Plan Your Day More Thoughtfully
If you spend so much of your time going from duty to duty with that feeling you are flying by the seat of your pants, taking five minutes to arrange your day so it doesn’t feel so manic can be far more beneficial on your frame of mind. When you start to plan your day, you will have more control over it which in turn gives you time to treat yourself. Taking the opportunity while you can to incorporate an enjoyable activity, no matter how brief it is, into your day, will help you to feel like a better person. Because we start to think about all the things that we have to do rather than the things we want to, we never make any time for ourselves. If you carve out 5 minutes to treat yourself and put a small activity into your day that is just for you it will minimize the more heavy-going aspects.
Be With People That Bring Out the Best in You
If we spend our entire existence with our family, no matter how much we love them and we find ourselves constantly going from task to task, we can feel inhibited in many ways. Sometimes we need a break from the monotony. And when we start to surround ourselves with people that can build us up and reduce our contact with those people who bring us down, we will feel the benefits in our well-being. While this may not seem like a way to treat yourself at first, you’ll quickly see that removing toxic people from your life is indeed, a real treat.
Look at Your Own Needs
When you start to incorporate more acts of kindness to yourself you will start to have a craving for the things that you want. Take the opportunity to understand what your needs are. If you begin to understand this, you will feel more stable in an emotional sense. And this can mean we will feel more secure in our relationships. When you start to understand who you are, especially when you’ve been looking after everybody else in the household for a long time, you can take those small opportunities during a day to do something that is for you. When you start to treat yourself well and recognize what your needs are, you’ll be amazed at the results! When you feel good about accomplishing tasks during the course of a day, you will inevitably feel better and more fulfilled.
Starting to Be Kinder to Yourself
Of course, all of these components begin with you looking directly in the mirror. When you think about prioritizing yourself, or at the very least indulging in self-care, it can feel pretty uncomfortable at the very outset. Take the opportunities where you can to begin to treat yourself and practice more self care. It can help to treat yourself as a different person. When you begin to step outside of yourself you may have a better understanding of how you would like to be treated. But also, be careful not to go too far when self-care can turn into self-absorption. But when you are so busy looking after your family there isn’t an opportunity to dwell on these things. So if you feel that you’ve been neglecting yourself or you look back and realize that you haven’t treated yourself for a long time it is now the opportunity to be kind to yourself. It’s not being selfish or prioritizing yourself above others!
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