Hello! 

It’s officially June and this is the perfect time to remind you to embrace adventure. Embrace the joy and living your life, embrace getting outside more and trying new things! 

I’ve had so many conversations with people lately about how overwhelmed and exhausted everyone is. It’s in the air. More than ever before in my practice, I’m talking to people with sudden, major health issues. Massive changes in living environments and careers. Personal trauma resurfacing in a big way. 

When you find yourself living with overwhelm, or wave after wave of big things coming up it can affect you in a pretty deep way. Self-care can help, sometimes, but it’s not always enough to build up your reserves or get you back into a healthier, happier place. This is because most people think self-care is just one type of thing. 

I wanted to take a moment to talk about the different types of self-care and how to balance the many facets to get what you need. Your needs can change frequently too, which is why it’s so important to check in with ourselves. Self-care is many things. It is staying hydrated, eating well, and getting exercise. It is prioritizing sleep, and revitalizing downtime like long, relaxing baths, reading on the couch, relaxing in nature, or meditating. 

Self-care is also doing deep work on yourself. It is going to therapy and support groups. It is understanding your habits and what provokes your anxiety and trauma responses. Self-care is allowing repressed emotions and memories the room to breathe, and expressing emotions like sadness, grief, anger, and frustration. Self-care is being real with yourself, and holding yourself accountable to change. 

There’s one last aspect of self-care I wanted to highlight, and the aspect I encourage you to focus on the next few weeks. Self-care is also having fun. It’s knowing when to balance the difficult with the joy. It is finding adventure in this great, big, magnificent world. It is dancing while you clean, blasting your favorite upbeat music, or doing a fun activity with your kids or your pets. It is watching funny movies, or trying a new activity with loved ones where you know you might look ridiculous, but you do it anyway, and you have fun. 

Life needs to be lived in balance. 

We need to do deep work to heal trauma wounds and old hurts. We must explore and have fun. We need to take downtime, relax, and connect to ourselves and our needs. We have to be patient with ourselves during periods of change, or difficulty. We need to learn to be more loving, to treat ourselves as well as we treat our friends and family. 

All of these things matter. Create the balance in your life, in a way that works for you. Don’t worry about what other people are doing, or recommending. If you connect to yourself, you’ll know what you need. 

In the next few weeks- how can you support all of these self-care avenues? How can you support yourself through downtime and relaxation? How can you support yourself by dealing with something major? How can you support yourself through fun and adventure? 

I’d love to know your answers, so please, please share! 

In Gratitude, 

Robin