confidence for self-care
You might think the thing I like best about my massage therapist is the way her fingers find hard, sore spots on the soles of my feet and coax them back toward suppleness. Or you might vote for the way her palms slide into the large, tight muscles of my lower back, releasing their tension.
You could certainly be forgiven for thinking the thing I like best is the way she tends my sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscles, each attached to a small bone behind the ear and traveling down the front of my neck to attach at my sternum and collarbone. By the time her hands finish speaking peace to my SCM and shoulder muscles, the space inside my head that had gone dark without my noticing returns to feeling lit with morning sun.
Glorious as all those sensations are, none of them is the thing I like best about Sheila.
What I like most about Sheila is her dedication to teaching me how to care for myself on the days when I don’t have an appointment with her. She delights in showing me how to use a lacrosse ball to release trigger points on my own. She happily jots a few notes for me to take home so I can remember how to ease the tension in my SCM muscles with my own hands. She genuinely enjoys empowering me with knowledge and confidence for self-care, even though that means I schedule with (and pay) her less often.
Which brings me to what I’m feeling as I offer the wisdom of the simple image below . . . I’m feeling quiet delight in sharing this list of ways to hack your “happiness chemicals.” I’m feeling happy as I think of you with the list, trying out ways to care for yourself emotionally when you don’t have time or money to meet with a professional caregiver. I’m smiling at the possibility of an increase in your knowledge and confidence for self-care.
Take a look at the list . . .
Source unknown. Thanks to my high school friend Steve Makofka for sharing this on Facebook!
Now grow quiet for a moment to listen to yourself. What are your thoughts, emotions, and body communicating to you? What do you need most right now—a reward, some love, a mood boost, pain relief? Which way of caring for yourself do you feel drawn to? Please pause to try it out!
What happened? What do you notice?
Consider experimenting further with the list. Maybe you can personalize it, adding or deleting as you discover the best ways to tend you. I added ‘organizing a drawer’ to the dopamine list since, for me, it’s a particularly rewarding task to complete. I added ‘take a nap’ to the serotonin list, because way too often my mood is low simply because I’m tired. And I’m never ever taking dark chocolate off the endorphins list!
Perhaps you could display your personalized list on the refrigerator, where you would see it often. Or maybe you’d like to store it on your phone or tuck it into the front of your calendar or journal, where you can find it easily.
Here’s to healthy levels of dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins—boosted by small kindnesses to ourselves in the midst of the many hours, days, and weeks we spend offering care to others!