17 Easy Ways to Take Good Care of Yourself

Let’s just call this a list of reminders for some things you’ve been meaning to do–

Stop rushing around. When will we realize that rushing here and there is an ineffective remedy for chronic lateness? Plan ahead. Plan to arrive 15 minutes before any appointment. Promise yourself 15 minutes of relaxation in your car with your favorite music for arriving early.

Wake up before everyone else in your house. The more time you spend sitting quietly in the morning, just contemplating things, the wiser, wealthier and healthier you’ll become.

Say exactly what you mean. If you find yourself in a situation where you find yourself feeling intimidated by a certain someone, practice stating your cause or your needs out loud, while you’re alone. Just be honest, say what’s simply true for you.

Refuse to complain and choose to be grateful for what’s good in your life. Each day… ask yourself… what are the things, large and small, in my life that I am truly thankful to have in my life. Purposefully make a mental gratitudes list. Your complaints list will sneak into your mind all by itself. Be ready to wipe it out.

Take care of your health. Seriously. When was the last time you had a check-up? Do you need to schedule appointments for annual tests… mammogram, cholesterol counts, Blood pressure checks, etc.? If you answered ”uh…” to when was your last check-up?…it’s probably time.

Move your body every single chance you get. Good for your heart. Good for your joints. Good for your muscles. Good for your weight.

Beef up your collection of funny movies and your favorite “chick flicks” … watch them often. Laugh, cry or let your imagination run wild… its all good.

Still smoking… after all these years??? STOP. Find a program that works or design a plan for yourself. Whatever it takes. Do it now.

Create a secret stash of playthings for yourself. When you were a kid what did you love to do?…play jacks?… play with Playdoh… color… blow bubbles… read comic books… play with a Lionel train?… or a race car set …hook a rug or weave a potholder… paint by number… ???  Fifteen minutes of old-fashioned play sounds like fun to me!

Today, take yourself some place you want to go. Spending an afternoon browsing a used books store or hunting down a pair of red leather heels or finding a new shade of lipstick is not a waste of time… it’s up to you to find little ways to treat yourself.

Make time for your creativity to flourish. Support your creativity with your favorite music, fresh flowers, scented candles, cuddly clothes to pamper yourself, fragrant herbal teas. Nothing spark s your creative juices like indulging all your senses.

Remember that you can’t do everything alone. Enlist help where needed. A peaceful life is a balanced life that includes time for your mate, your children, your work, your passions and time for you. A lack, or overload, in any of these areas threatens your sense of well-being. Take stock, often, of how your time is spent. And I know you’ve heard it before: Say no when asked to do things that you know will derail your own agenda or your peace of mind in any way.

Give yourself a time out. Nothing heals (or staves off) a case of burn-out like taking the time to sit with yourself in solitude.

Check your self-talk. Are you building yourself up or tearing yourself down? We hear more self-talk than anyone else’s talk… so know that what we say to and about ourselves is indeed important

Cherish your friends. Reach out and touch, call or write to your best sister-friends at least once a week… the more often… the better.

Let go of the things you really don’t need, don’t use and probably don’t even know you have. Be nice… share what you have more than enough of.

Talk to God… simple. Just talk. To walk through your life without acknowledging and communicating with your Creator is to deny yourself a richer, more peace-filled life. There is a full life to be lived on the inside as well as on the outside of us… the intellectual mind is illumined greatly and fabulously by the spirit mind.

Are you ready to leave your fear zone?

Yes, our fears like to boom in our minds in a loud, action-arresting, nasty voice. Fear is definitely an attention-hog, demanding that we drop everything and listen as it warns of the impending disaster and failure and destruction that might happen.

Your fear has the power (that you have given it) to derail every positive train of thought you come up with— stopping you from heeding your growing pains and taking the steps you need to be taking to move your life forward. But you can stop it from taking over if you start to develop awareness about just how often fear has been showing up and reigning in your life. If you’re not sure of your personal fear quotient, ask yourself this: How many decisions has fear made for you lately?

In the last month?

In the last week?

In the last two days?

How about in the last hour?

Understand that the only way to shut down the fear you feel about any situation is to pump up your song of Faith. Drown fear out. Fear’s wrong. Even if the dreaded thing happens. Even if the thing that you so don’t want to have happen . . . happens, it will not be the way fear has been threatening that it will.

And know that the more you depend on Spirit to show you the areas of your life that require spiritual work, the less power fear will have over you.

Remember the “Mother May I?” game? Well, on your life journey, you are both mother (who gives permission) and baby (who takes the steps). And, if mother is a big old scaredy cat—who’s afraid to take risks or venture a thought outside the box—baby’s growth is going to be considerably thwarted.
In some instances, especially where fear is concerned, it may help you to think of yourself as the child, and your spirit-woman as mother—the inner one who fuels your best decisions and weighs the criteria on every situation in your life. Realize that your spirit-woman’s instruction resonates with Divine Wisdom . . . and honor her for choosing to grow you up.

Excerpt from From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges that lead to Joy! Copyright 2009 Esther Davis-Thompson

Can You See Yourself on Your High Places?

There are several things that can keep us in a larva state of never becoming who we are really capable of being. Major on that list are the relationships that tie us to our old ways of being.

By far, the most life-altering relationship we’ll ever have is the relationship we have with Self. Yet, in Trouble we tend to stop loving and accepting ourselves for who we really are. We stop supporting our real emotions and our real truths, and we put all our energy into crafting constantly evolving tactics to enable ourselves to survive our stay in Trouble.

Trouble is an ugly mirror that rarely offers us a glimpse of our true-Self. Every self-image we form in Trouble is reflected back to us distorted. Our Trouble self-images can make us look so bad to ourselves that, if we aren’t careful, we can venture into a realm of self-loathing.

Now, know this: Who you were in Trouble is not who you really are. Whereas in Trouble you were, mainly, a reactive being, you are different as your pro-active, High-Places Self.

Today, begin to build a new relationship with your Self. Imagine yourself on your High Places—separated and far away from the elements of your Trouble. On your High Places you are truly yourself. With your mind made up and your confidence in place . . . with your beliefs set high and your spirit leading the way . . . with your mind focused and your passion following your wonder . . . you are indeed quite different, I assure you!

Are You Ready to Receive More?

Nothing good can happen for us until we, first, open ourselves to the possibility of receiving our good and then proceed to lay the spiritual groundwork of believing for it to happen. Not our best health. Not true wealth. Not a peaceful life. Not healthy, happy children. Not a beautiful home or a lovely garden. In fact, nothing much really. Unless we are willing to pray, to believe and focus, to ponder, to analyze, scrutinize, and then take the steps required to purposefully mutilate a current state of being, in surrender to a new momentum led by our spirits, we can’t move beyond the place we now occupy.
New energy to move forward . . . new focus and concentration . . . the ability to press forward, upward, and on toward the place we want to be . . . new power in any form has to come from our Creator.

New blessings come only from our Creator. 

So, when your personal reserves are running low—when there is something that you need—do you think you should ask for more . . . from your Creator? 

When you can feel yourself being defeated by some aspect of your life, do you remember to ask the one who created you for more power over your circumstances?

When you feel your body failing, do you ask for more health?

When you don’t have enough money to do what you need and want to do, do you ask for opportunities to create more wealth for yourself? 

When you can’t come up with a new idea or a better solution to the problem that’s presently pressing you hard, do you sit in Spirit, and ask for more . . . ?

Do you sometimes feel as though you lack the strength to walk toward the desires of your heart?

Your spirit-woman, who hears directly from God, lives strong in you. Listen . . . and learn from her.

How would she go about walking out the life that you envision?

What would she do first?

What would she do next?

And, after that?….

How Do You Handle the Hard Stuff?

Give It To God.

I know . . . this sounds way too simple. But it’s the best way I know to handle those seemingly impossible sticklers of real-life. Do what you can . . . give what stumps you to God. That’s truly how I’ve come to live my life.

Do you remember, as a child, when you picked up something that could harm you, your mother would say—“Give it here! Give it to me!”

Do you remember that?

Well, there are still times when we insist on picking up and holding on to things that we’re better off without. Things that we don’t understand the workings of. And heavy things that we’ve carried for so long, and become so familiar with, that we don’t realize they’re creating holes in our womanspace and making us act other than who we truly are.

Today . . . sit in Spirit for a time. Think about that thing that’s worrying you, dominating your thoughts, and determining the color of your days. Give this thing that is broken, cracked, dirty, wrong, too hard, and too tiresome . . . to God. Give the impossible thing that sits heavy in the middle of your mind, and in the middle of your life, to God . . . and let God deal with it. Let Spirit do what Spirit does—work things out Divinely. Have that much faith. And keep reminding yourself that this is no longer your battle to fight. It’s Spirit’s battle now. Refuse to give so much thought to it anymore. Pray about it. Leave it alone.

***

My God,
Today, I am thankful . . .
for the health I do have,
for the strength I do have,
for the hope I do have,
and for the wisdom I do have.
For the family you’ve given me,
for the friends you’ve given me,
and the love you’ve placed in my life.
For the peace you’ve given me
and for the clarity you’ve given me.
For answers to prayers,
and for solutions to problems
(especially those I didn’t expect).
For fullness of heart on some days
and for my aching heart on other days.
For the experiences that stretched me
and for the experiences that bled my heart clean.
I am thankful, Lord,
for your reasons,
and your purposes.
For the things I understand
and the things I don’t.

___
From Trouble to High Places: Meditations for Women Who Are So Ready to Cross the Bridges That Lead to Joy!