With stress levels at an all-time high, focusing on self-care has never been more important. Too many people try to push through without taking time for themselves, often leading to poor physical, emotional and spiritual health. Making time isn’t always easy, but the way you feel afterward is well worth the effort.
Why is it so hard to make time for our physical, emotional and spiritual well-being? For most of us, it comes down to priorities. When our days are packed with demands, personal care often falls to the bottom of the list. By letting everything else monopolize our time, we only increase the stress we already feel—and, as we know, stress is a major contributor to illness.
To truly care for our health, we must make it a priority. Busy schedules can’t stand in the way of staying healthy. How much time you spend on self-care depends on your commitment to taking control of your well-being. Many of us haven’t learned to think proactively about our health, often due to societal conditioning.
For example, the food industry prioritizes taste over health, knowing that the more we like something, the more we’ll buy it. Unfortunately, most processed foods contain toxins and unhealthy ingredients that harm our health over time. Changing our eating habits isn’t easy, but making small, conscious adjustments can lead to lasting success.
In addition to dietary considerations, environmental toxins also impact our bodies, particularly the liver. When overworked, the liver can’t function effectively, leading to further health complications. Supporting liver health is essential for overall well-being.
Caring for mind, body and soul not only keeps us healthy, it keeps us balanced. To stay balanced, we need to manage the stress we allow into our lives. Often, we let others push us into “fight-or-flight” mode simply because we haven’t learned to say no. By taking control of our stress and prioritizing self-care, we begin to crave more peace in our lives. True self-care helps reset the nervous system from fight or flight back to homeostasis. However, it needs to be a modality that energetically works on the nervous system—like a massage, which has deeper restorative effects, rather than a cosmetic service like a manicure.
Some beneficial self-care modalities include:
·
Yoga and Breathwork: Practicing
yoga, especially with proper breathwork, helps release tension and promotes
relaxation.
·
Sound Baths: Instruments like
crystal bowls and chimes produce calming frequencies that can bring you out of
fight or flight and into a relaxed state.
·
Sound and Light Therapy: The
Harmonic Egg combines music and color to shift the body out of fight or flight
and into homeostasis. It is an effective way to reduce stress while
experiencing soothing music and color.
·
Now is the time to prioritize your
health. With a few small changes to your routine, you can embrace self-care and
experience life-changing benefits.
Jean Hanson co-owns Realign Your Life Wellness Center, in Mesa. The center offers sound and light therapy with the Harmonic Egg. Steve Hanson, a sound healing practitioner, also holds bimonthly sound baths. Appointments can be booked online at RealignYourLifeAZ.com or by calling 480-306-7321.
