Giving A F*ck About Yourself
I’m a day late, but not a dollar short. Bare with me being tardy for the weekly blog post. Getting a little adjusted to some life changes. It was a kid-free weekend last week for my better half and me. Like most couples do when the children are with the parentals, we did adult shit. Like clean the house, run errands, and talk about finances. This is riveting stuff! That aside, we got extra opportunities to connect with each other more than we usually do without the distraction of hearing something shatter in the living room or seeing spilled organic fruit juice on the floor. Ok, that last incident is completely unfair to the kids, because I’m the one mainly spilling liquids all over our carpet. I had a conversation with a tech from a carpet cleaning company once as he was servicing our home. He mentioned that the top three causes of stained carpets are pets, children, and dads. He’s hater anyway, so I just dismissed it.
One thing I made sure to do over the weekend is get in a ton of self-care activities in for myself. It’s going to be a very busy few weeks for me and already I’m tired, boss. Julia and I got an opportunity to watch our hood soap opera, Power, I got in a couple of hours of video games, and had the very elusive, yet highly talked about Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich. Damn you all for making them sell out of that bird between two buns. I’m in need of another right as I’m typing this post. Guess I’ll settle for a Chick-Fil-A number one combo, spicy version doused with barbecue sauce and an Arnold Palmer to wash it down.
All of this I do in the holy name of self-care. It’s important for me to keep my Spidey senses tingling to notice when I need to check out of life’s demands and focus on me. My body and mind are sending me signals that I haven’t quite acknowledged yet. As I’m typing this, I’m caffeinated, yet still sleepy. I haven’t drank enough water for the day, yet I’m still pushing myself to get a good two liters in until I go home. We have a long weekend ahead of us and I’m trying to keep all of my social obligations to a minimum. We do what we have to do to take care of ourselves before we get to burnout mode. I’ve been there far too many times. Dealing with family issues, stressing at the job, then compounding all of that with adulting causes me too much anxiety and depression. So it’s good for me to recharge every once in awhile. Lifting weights have been a good self-care method that I really enjoy. Being in the gym allows me to stay healthy, listen to some dope music, and let off all of my aggression.
As we get closer to the end of the year, I need to be extra diligent in how I manage my time and recognizing my stressors. My job is extra stressful starting October through the end of the year, due to the company directly catering to small businesses. Around those months, everything is on fire. The worst thing for me to do around this frantic time is self-medicate. It’s easy to go grab a bottle of bourbon or any other type of liquor and “forget” about the day that I just had. The challenge for me comes with making the time to engage in self-care activities that are actually beneficial to my body and peace of mind. Like I said in a previous post, you just gotta get shit done and part of that is taking care of yourself. We have one body, one mind, and one life (that we know of), so do your future self a favor by treating it kindly.
