Do you even practice self-care?
Sure, you get your regular massages, go to the gym, get your sweat on, but how do you recover? And no, I’m not saying that self-care is an active recovery day of a 10-mile run. THAT IS NOT SELF-CARE.
To me, self-care is taking time out for ME. Admittedly, I’m bad at it. I spend so much time fixing others when they are on my massage table or teaching them their ways to practice self-care (be it with Yoga Tune Up®, LifeStretch, or the Roll Model® Method at one of our weekly mobility classes) that my own self-care game often gets put on the back burner.
Start taking care of yourself
Self-care doesn’t have to be something time-consuming. I’m not too fond of the idea of sitting in a 60-minute yoga class trying to get all zen with myself. It’s so dull to me! Even dropping down on the floor in my studio at Michigan Massage and Wellness for 5-10 minutes of mobility work before my next client is sometimes enough. It doesn’t need to be time-consuming or even have a big plan.
Some time ago when I was out of town in a training, I dealt with a dull headache ALL DAY. I was pumped up on Aleve and Excedrine Migraine in class, but nothing was doing much. Finally, when I got out of class and was relaxing later that night, I got out my pair of Yoga Tune Up® therapy balls and spent about 10 minutes with the balls nestled into my suboccipital, scalenes, and temporalis and just slowly let the tissues melt into the therapy balls while I watched another episode of Grey’s Anatomy.
And you know what happened? MY HEADACHE WENT AWAY.
How to level up your self-care game
In our popular Strategies for Self Care Workshop, you can join us in one of our weekly mobility classes, or you can spend a blissful two hours working from head to toe to iron out your mobility issues and pain. In this workshop, you will learn more techniques than you ever thought you needed to tackle all of your problems. Plantar fasciitis? Migraines? Shoulder problems? Tight hips? Sciatica? Piriformis pain? Back pain? Carpal tunnel? You name it; we have a solution for it.
Stop thinking that you need to dedicate hours at a time (or even one hour) to improve your situation, and start thinking about when you can spend 5-10 minutes a day to help improve your situation. As I said, it’s not uncommon for me to roll out at the end of the night watching television or waiting for my next client. You don’t even need to get down on the floor for it, so take your balls to work and hang out against a wall while you’re on hold with Stan from accounting trying to get him to approve your expense report. Or call me in for a corporate wellness class and see what you can get done in 25-30 minutes.
Self-care isn’t selfish. It’s essential. If you don’t have the time (or money) for a regular massage, this is the next best thing, and you don’t want to miss out.
In good hands,
Rebecca Tamm, LMT