Self Care & Time Management

In January the topic of conversation was "what is your theme or words for the year" ... mine was "self-care". To me [at the time] this meant taking better care of my body & some soul/spirit & mind care. Really what this meant was regular massage and chiro ... exercising & yoga ... Intuitive Energy Massage and Best treatments. Little did I know what "self-care" was really about for me.

Its funny how we choose things [like self-care] and think "ah ha ... this is how its going to be" and its nothing of the sort. That's kinda how my self-care has gone. I was all set after the holidays to start this new regime ...  Well the universe had other plans for me ... starting with the flu!

Rest ... sleep ... taking it easy ... this doesn't sound like self-care ... does it? So since January this is what I have been banging up against. Every time I started to feel better and would try to ramp my life & business back up ... bam back in bed! And then there is my shoulder! Seems I have become a statistic ... female between the ages of 45-55 ... rotator cuff and impingement syndrome - very painful, hard to move, harder still to sleep on. So self-care became about healing shoulder too. Deep sigh.

So when I finally went skiing in March I was feeling back on track ... I was doing my shoulder exercises, yoga and sleeping well ...  And then I went cross-country skiing. Long story short, I fell 5 times. I wish someone had filmed it. It would of been spectacular ... body rolling, skis & poles flailing down a small hill. I landed on my right shoulder and jammed my sternum to the left. I landed on my left bum cheek and jammed my right hip out. And I guess I hit my head too, cause the chiro said I had whiplash; though ironically my neck didn't hurt.

So my point in all this is that here I am mid-May and I really feel like I haven't started my "self-care" and yet thats all I've been doing! It just looked a little different. And then the other day when I had a crazy thought ...
"what if I went to bed early?"
"what if I went to bed early, got enough sleep so that I would wake up rested?"
"what if I went to be early, got enough sleep, woke up rested and had time in the morning to do stuff?"
"what if by doing all this I wasn't rushed in the morning and I made it to my clients early instead of right on time?"
"what if I did all of this instead of staying up late on facebook or netflix?"
"what if I put myself and my health first?" 

So now I meditate almost every day; and I go to bed early almost every day; and I have more time in my day; and I get things done; and I don't feel rushed; and it finally feels like I'm taking care of myself. Who knew it could be this simple!