As a therapist, I not only try to encourage my clients to think about their own self care and what that might look like in their everyday life, but I also need to look after my own self care.
I am lucky enough to have a garden and earlier this year I felt that it needed the addition of a hammock to lie on in a sunny spot of the garden on beautiful days. How right I was.
Once you get the hang of getting into it without falling out again, with that slight sway from left to right, it's like turning on a switch of calm and tranquility. Looking up at the beautiful sky with cotton wool clouds and watching the planes high overhead. With birds, bees and butterflies flitting around the foliage, once a butterfly gently landed on my foot remaining there for quite some time. I stayed as still as possible to extend my delight.
Moments of Mindfulness, being in the present, just being, are precious moments of self care at the end of busy days. It is a wonderful way to transition between work time and me. Perhaps you can find ways to help you transition between work and home life, especially with so many of us working from home. Switching off from work can be a constant struggle.
One evening as I lay reflecting on what a calm feeling my hammock brought to me, I considered my practice in EMDR and the work of that day. Realising, that focusing on the thought of ME time, self care, calmness and the pleasure of lying in the garden, with the hammock swaying side to side, my eyes were making lateral eye movements, and I was unwittingly creating my own adaptive neural pathways and linking into my dopamine reward pathway.