After having my second child in 2018 I suffered from postnatal depression and really had to take a long hard look at my life and the direction it was going in. One thing I longed for was to be happy; I felt like after all my years in education and working professionally, being married and having children just wasn’t enough to fill the void I felt I had. I had studied and worked hard but I was still broke, I had control over what I wore but I still hated my clothes and style, I had spent the last few years exercising and watching what I ate and then after two pregnancies by body was unrecognisable to me. My children were happy and healthy but I felt like I was failing them, I just wanted to press reset. I wanted to start again, but I was already in the race and couldn’t start over, so I just had to keep going with the way I was; or so I thought.
Through reading, praying and talking to some trusted friends I realised I didn’t have to start over; in reality I just needed to realign with my purpose, my passions, start making new goals and finally take back control of my life. I took time to learn more about self-care and realised that it wasn’t just about having bubble baths and face masks but it was about looking at the different areas of your life that make you uniquely you and giving those areas the time and attention they need to flourish. If I look back over my life I’m not really sure where I ever flourished. Initially that felt pretty depressing but with a closer look I realised that we flourish when we truly learn to take care of ourselves first and walk in our God given purpose. I had not been taking care of myself first, even before I had children I was just simply going through the motions of what I thought I had to do once I became an adult. And so this blog is part of that process, because as I’m learning to take care of myself, I’m sharing my methods and findings with you.
So I want you to think about the different areas of your life; think about what makes you uniquely you and then ask yourself the question; ‘Am I flourishing?’ If you’ve answered ‘no’ then you’re not alone, you’re in the right place and there is help for you. It’s time to start the journey of taking care of yourself first. My homework for you with this blog post is to look over your life so far and identify areas in which you have flourished in the past and note down what habits and practices you were consistent with at the time of your flourishing. If like me you take a look back over your life and can’t find any examples of you flourishing, that’s fine, as I said before you are definitely not alone. In my next blog post I will be looking at self-care in more detail which will include identifying the different areas of your life and what you need to consider in order to allow for you to flourish in those areas. Don’t be to hard on yourself, part of self-care and healing is learning to be kind to yourself; there are no quick fixes, but if you really want to make lasting positive change, you are already one step closer to it.
Check Out Some Of My Other Posts On Self Care:
13 Ways To Practice Self Care At Work
An Introduction to Self Care Part 1
An Introduction to Self Care Part 2
9 Habits To Transform Your Life
