(HappierDaily.com) – Do you ever feel like you haven’t gotten all that you deserve? Maybe the culprit of this is you. Taking care of yourself is essential to getting every last thing you deserve. You can’t get everything from someone else, and you certainly can’t give everything to someone else either.
You need to take time for yourself whether you need to recoup from the work day/week, kids’ crazy schedules, school work, or whatever it may be. So stop exhausting all of your precious time and energy, and save a little so you can do something for you, not some one else this time.
Consider doing a few of these 3 easy ideas for treating yourself better:
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Receive:
We may think we are doing the polite thing when we reject gifts, when they’re “too much” or when people give us compliments we don’t think we deserve. It’s really the opposite… Consider this, some people’s “love language” is to give, and to show you their love through their thoughtfulness.Although it may be the polite thing to do to just receive, don’t do it just for them. Accept things for you, too. Take in the love and kindness from others, and in turn you may treat yourself with more love, kindness and compassion, too.
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Release:
Many of us happy people consider ourselves to be the strong one. We are the heads of our families ultimately keeping things together for everyone else. Even if we aren’t the head, we play a massive role in having others come to us for guidance and support. We take on the weight of others, but at the end of the day, where does all that weight go? It remains with you unless you give it a proper release.Did you know that crying physically releases pent up cortisol, the stress hormone. That’s why it feels weirdly exhausting but good afterwards. Release the weight you’re carrying from time to time whether it’s a good cry, or a visit with a good friend or family member to just vent or get some perspective from them.
Caring for yourself is not self-indulgence, it is self preservation…
-Audre Lorde
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Respect Your Passions:
Everyone has their “weird thing.” Their unique passion and hobby. Sometimes that passion is what can give you that release you need from number 2. (My top two passions are playing piano – it gives me an emotional release, and woodburning, it’s just soothing and it’s something artistic which I love). No matter what it is that you like to do for fun, take some time in your day to work on it. Everyone has 10 minutes somewhere — and those 10 minutes add up!So the question is – what do you like to do? Garden, knit, sing, explore, bowl, pottery, chess? The world is at your finger tips, and it’s just as hungry for that “weird thing” you have to offer to it as you are to do it.