The B.E.S.T. Formula: S is for Self-Care

One of the things I find fascinating about self-care is that it’s so easy yet so hard to do at times.

I intended to publish this blog about one month ago, but then got so busy with school starting that I fell completely off my own self-care cart. I’ve been struggling to get back on. It’s like my horse (I’ll call her Betsy) is pulling it just fast enough that I can’t reach the back end to hoist myself on. I call out, “Hey, Betsy! Slow down, will ya?” But she just snorts and keeps going.

Can’t even control my own horse.

As I jog along behind, the tailgate just out of reach, it occurs to me that writing about something I recommend to others, when I’m not doing it myself, feels a bit ridiculous.

So, I am not going to wait to grab hold of the cart: I’m just going to do a little self-care where I am right now. And that means, writing this piece.

It wasn’t easy at first. It’s Sunday, a day when part of me says, “You deserve a break!” But I decided to get up at 5:30am anyway, because I have school work hounding me. But then I thought, “You’re up early, why not work out? Y’know, get a little self-care blood flowing!” But I was still sleepy, so I took a shower to wake up. Then, I squeezed into my workout clothes, and got very very close to my yoga mat for some easy stretches. But my mat is, rightly or wrongly, in my home office. And my desk was a mess. Why not get the blood flowing by cleaning that up first? I hate a messy desk.

Of course, cleaning up my desk meant sorting through slips of paper with notes about things to do, and then there was a book to shelve, and then another, which led to tidying up a pile of papers sitting on top of my printer … You can see where this is going.

My plans for self-care, which this morning meant “working out” were unravelling right in front of me. Betsy had pulled farther ahead, and I was slipping farther behind.

But, as I moved things to where they belonged, I started to feel a little happier. A little lighter. And suddenly I had the mental energy to sit here and write. Writing brings me joy. It’s one of my forms of self-care. I love how ideas just appear in my noggin, and my fingers dutifully tap them out.

“Maybe self-care is as easy as that,” the thought appeared between sips of coffee. “Just start with what’s kinda fun, and see what happens.”

My desk is tidied up now, and I am writing about self-care and starting to hum “Here comes the sun” on a cloudy day, and realizing that I was making my self-care into a huge project. I was making it a bigger cart that was impossible to reach.

Self-care only takes a moment.

It can be as easy as looking out the window at the sun rising, or watching the speckled-belly flicker hopping across the roof of my neighbor’s house, searching for whatever flickers search for at this hour.

Self-care can be another sip of coffee, maybe a smile at myself for being such a doofus.

Tomorrow, I am going to set a reminder in my phone to do a little on-the-spot self-care at school. It’s the first thing I let go of when things get busy. Which is to say, all of the time.

I get to working so hard that I forget to use the bathroom, I forget to drink water, I find myself standing for eight hours and then wondering why my legs ache.

I see other teachers doing this, too.

I can feel Betsy slowing her trot and rolling her eyes at me. I grasp the top of the tail gate, and I’m in.

What do you need today for that moment of self-care?

Not sure?

Here’s my hand. Grab on.