My Month in Self-Care: Week #3

July 15th 2018

I’m learning that self-care is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight and it isn’t always easy.

I can’t believe July is already halfway through. It feels as though this month and this year as a whole are flying by much too quickly. For those of you unsure what this little series is, it is my month in self-care (as stated in the title). It is my month to try out new forms of self-care to see what changes I need to make to improve my life in small ways.

If this is the first one of these you’re reading, that is totally fine! But if you would like to go back and see my month so far, you can go back and read Week #1 and Week #2 before returning to this post!

As I did last week, I want to start by going through the goals I had from this past week and talk about how I did!

• Leave my work at work this week- I think I did a pretty good job at this one this week. I didn’t check my work email from home even once this week and I really created a barrier between work and life. Every week is going to come with its own set of challenges, but I plan on working to keep the balance.
• Spend more time outside- I enjoyed the nice weather while taking walks throughout the work day. I work on a beautiful college campus so getting outside isn’t a difficult thing to ask of myself. However, I would have liked to spend more time outside after work.
• Research some good plants to buy- I actually bought 2 new plants and was gifted a third from my mother! I got a Zanzibar Aloe plant that I named Reggie, A Powder Puff Succulent (Pachyveria) name Gus, and my mom gave me a Christmas Cactus that she suggested I name Noel…because it is a Christmas Cactus, get it?
• Catch up with an old friend- This week, I caught up with my friend Kait who I hadn’t seen in a few months. We have been friends since freshman or sophomore year of high school so we are going on 8 or 9 years of friendship. I always love catching up and she gave me some really great pep-talks.
• Spend some time on Pinterest– I definitely didn’t put as much time into this as I would have liked but I was busy doing some other things so I don’t mind!

One thing I am particularly proud of this week is that I really feel I have been dressing better. I really enjoy fashion and now that I have cleaned my closet out, I find that it is easier to pick out new outfits that I really enjoy.

My goals for the upcoming week are as follows:

1. Make healthy choices while I’m out. I have a few plans next week with friends and I want to try to make good choices when I am out to eat or out for a long time in general. I want to resist the temptation to buy foods that aren’t good for me (and often make me feel like shit).
2. Go to yoga. At the start of the month, I was too sick to go to my morning yoga classes. One reason was because I wasn’t sleeping and the other was that I couldn’t breathe properly without choking. However, I have started slow this past week and hope to return fully this week.
3. Pack lunch for work. I am so bad at packing my lunches for work and I often forget to pack enough food to last me the day. I feel like if I pack better lunches, not only will I be more productive, but I will also avoid being tempted to eat unhealthy stuff offered to me at work.
4. Find new music. I love give transitional phases in my life to have a soundtrack. Since I can feel a lot of changes taking place, I need new music to mark those changes.

See you next week!

Jess~