THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

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Self Care

• Wellness Tip:

• Quote from Marcus Aurelius

• Post: 10 Daily Habits to level up as a human

• Article: What does self care really mean?

Wellness Tip

Following any program is better than figuring it out yourself.

Regardless of your goals, an established program will ALWAYS yield better results than trying to figure things out yourself.

I’ve been reminded of this over the past quarter, as I’ve been doing a 5x5 strength program for the first time in many years. I’ve been disappointed with my overall strength in the past few years - my exercise consistency has been high, but intensity has not, and my strength training consistency has been spotty.

I’ve also been injuring my lower back more regularly in the past two years. So after my most recent injury, and my chiropractor commenting that my glutes are like “pancakes” (yikes) - I started a strength program for the first time in many year.

The results? I’m on week 9 and haven’t missed one day or one lift. My numbers are not only going up, I can feel my body get stronger and more durable.

It’s a great reminder - whatever your goal is, using a program that’s proven will ALWAYS give better results than making it up as you go.

Quote

"You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” - Marcus Aurelius

Post

My most popular post from this week is here

It lists my Top 10 Habits to level up.

It also starts off by calling out what “self-care” is not. So today I want to dig into self-care a bit.

Self-Care

Self-care is a term that has been used in the medical community since the 50s. And then was used heavily in the 60s and 70s by civil rights activists who emphasized self-care as a strategy to maintain physical and mental health to combat injustices.

Since then it’s gained mainstream usage, has morphed into a broad term related to anything that feels good.

My opening line in my post is “self care isn’t red wine and pedicures”, which was called out by my amazing partner as patronizing towards women - busted and apologies.

Same thing could have (and should have) been said “self-care isn’t watching sports and drinking beer”.

The point is that while just unwinding is great from time to time, considering it “self-care” destroys the intent of the term.

A good definition of self-care:

Self-care is the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health and well-being, particularly during periods of stress.

The key part of this definition is “taking action to preserve or improve”.

The point of any activity you want to call self-care, is to actively do work in order to improve your health.

This includes sleep and rest, but it generally implies activities that are going to make you better.

This term used in the context of our daily and weekly lives, can help us dramatically improve our experience, focus and cognitive ability, and overall health.

I think about and plan for “self-care” every day, weekly, and also monthly and quarterly.

Here’s a quick list of activities I participate in daily & weekly that I categorize as self-care:

That’s a brainstormed list of everything I could think of in five minutes. I’m sure there are a few more, but the point is all of these activities are things I perform on a weekly basis that I do to make myself mentally and physically healthier.

There’s a mix of “fun” and “hard” activities - I don’t love doing all of them.

Some activities also change during life’s seasons - currently I love doing outdoor yard work, I’ve also had phases where I’ve outsourced it.

Action: As you think about your weekend, a simple exercise is to contemplate what you’re doing to improve your health this weekend?

Just thinking about it will yield positive outcomes.

Talk to you next week,

Mike

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