How To Truly Recharge
Today we wanted to take a moment to talk a little bit about recharging. Self-care can often feel like a bit of an enigma, so we wanted to break down an exercise to walk you through how to check in and make sure your truly recharging your battery when you take some ‘me time’. Like many I ran into this problem a few years back, constantly exhausted from work, and getting home, too tired to think and instead eating whatever food I could find and turning the tv on until my brain checked out. Sound familiar? You’re certainly not alone. Especially in the light of a pandemic, we’ve all been subject to looking ourselves in the mirror and trying to figure out how to support ourselves and our families through this difficult time. It wasn’t until I did some research I realised there was a real difference between replenishing your energy, and just checking out of reality. As it turns out, I had been doing the latter for a long time and it was time for a change. Below we’ve put together an exercise to help you check in with yourself and figure out what you need to help you recharge and feel more fueled for the day ahead.
Get into a quiet space
Give yourself the gift of a quiet space for the next 30 minutes to an hour. In this quiet space you are undisturbed and don’t have anything to distract you including your phone. Leave it in the next room, and only bring with you a pen and paper.
Reflect On What You Tend To Do With Your Downtime
Once you’ve made sure you won’t be disturbed, grab a blank page and take a moment to think about how you spend your down time. Not time cooking, or cleaning, or commuting, but the time when you have a few minutes to yourself. If you can’t think of the last time you had a few minutes to yourself that may be a great place to start.
How Do Those Activities Make You Feel
Though it may not be for all, you may find yourself with a list including such items as “watching tv”, “scrolling on my phone” etc. If that’s the case, again you’re not alone. For this next part beside each item, write down one or two feelings that you associate with after doing these activities. I know when I finish watching too many episodes of my favourite show in a row I often feel lethargic and ready for bed. Think about how your activities affect you.
Is There Something You Could Replace One Of Those Activities With?
Now that you can see in front of you how you spend bits of your time, on a separate page, think of things that bring you joy. This can be anything from exercise, bubble baths, therapy, time with friends, going for coffee on your own or anything in between. Taking a moment to connect with yourself and what makes your heart feel a little bigger is a great way to start reconnecting with yourself.
Make a self-care menu
Once you have your list of things that make you feel joyful and feel more fulfilled, you can start to create what we like to call a “Self-Care Menu”. This menu is meant to be a gentle nudge whenever you start to scroll on your phone or hit that power button on your tv. By starting to replace those activities with more intentional ones you start to feel like you have more control over your time and feel better for it. Even trying to book yourself in for a workout once a week if that’s something you enjoy is a great place to start, whatever will help you feel more recharged the better. Take the time to beautify your self care menu and even hang it on your wall or take a picture on your phone so it’s always with you to lean on when you need it.
When it comes to your self-care and your energy, no one can control that but you, so take the time to honour all that you are and all that you do. We all need a little time and space sometimes, so make sure to give yourself that gift that keeps on giving.
Want more self-care tips and ideas? Check out our Self-care section and our Instagram to stay in the know.