Physical Self-Care is one of the first things I think of when I think “Self-Care” in general. Typically I’m thinking the whole bubble bath scene, or occasionally a Mom sneaking some time on the toilet before her littles find her.
It includes things like your Exercise, Pampering your body (facials, getting nails done etc), eating well, and embracing your sexuality. All around the point is to help your body feel good.
Most of my life the main source of physical Self-Care that I’ve used is a good shower and occasionally a bath. I LOVE hot water, and it causes me to relax like you wouldn’t believe. So much so that I credit it with the reason why my labor and delivery of kiddo were painless (we had a water birth).
So when I’m feeling stressed I pop into the shower, and crank up the heat. Now, this doesn’t always work out so well when you have a kiddo in the house. Responsibility for the little guy can make me a little batty from time to time.
And if he is awake he needs constant supervision, while asleep requires regular checking or at least to be within baby monitor distance. And of course, he could wake up at any time and interrupt my impromptu self-care session soooooo… yeah not really relaxing.
So what’s a Mom to do?
Establishing your options for a Physical Self-Care Routine
Personally, I like to know what exactly my options are when it comes to my self-care time. I don’t always get an hour uninterrupted, or even 15 minutes. As the fabled bubble bath takes 15 minutes to run for me to be comfortable in it, I’ve had to find other options.
I started by breaking down what I thought I could do in set time frames. (ie if I have 5 minutes what can I do? 20 minutes?)
What do I need to arrange childcare for? Appointments?
I ended up breaking this down into groups of 5 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, & kid-less time.
Then I started looking at lists of things I could do and breaking it into the time segments I thought I could do them in.
5 minutes
- Trim nails (Toes or Fingers)
- Wash Face
- Brush Teeth
- Run Stairs
- Drink water
- Put on fuzzy socks
- have a cup of tea
- Make out session with hubby
20 Minutes
- Face Mask
- Healthy Snack
- Stretch Routine (x2)
- Sitz Bath (my personal recipe for this coming soon) 😉
- Dance to some fun music (with headphones if kiddo is sleeping)
- Yoga
- Shave Legs
- Self Massage Feet or Hands
- apply moisturizer
- play with makeup (If this is something you like, I don’t but I know many who do)
- Make out session with hubby
An hour
- Full shower
- Nap
- Epsom Salt Bath or Long Shower (I also love Epsom Salts in my tub as I shower)
- Meal Plan & Make Grocery List
- Go for a walk
- Follow an at home exercise video
- Make out session with hubby
Kid-Less
- Massage Appointment
- Osteopathy Appointment (Seriously if you haven’t tried this AWESOME STUFF!)
- Get a Manicure / Pedicure (I don’t do Pedi’s but I would put this one here if I did)
- Hit the gym
- Make out session with hubby 😉
I know it probably seems like hubby is getting lots of action from this list… that’s more a reminder to myself that Self-Care doesn’t need to be solo. I know it’s nice and fun to get some alone time, especially as a Mom who gets touched ALL THE TIME! I get it, we are still breastfeeding as well (Kiddo will be 2 in July) so I’m being touched a lot myself. But sometimes a little one-on-one with your man can really make your body feel good. And hey, added bonus it helps you release some extra fun hormones that will make sex later that much better.
As you can see in the list above my self-care options include things like exercise, but mostly focuses on things that end up making my body feel good.
I am also working towards bringing more exercise into my life, at the moment I’m a bit heavier than my joints like. My knees are starting to ache when I move in certain ways, so I know it’s time to get more active again. But I refuse to simply go “hard-core” like I used to. The whole point of physical self-care and building it into your daily routine is to make you feel good about your body.
For me that means I can’t do the measurements thing, stepping on a scale, or measuring how big around I am is not something I’m ok with at this time. Yes, that is partly a self-esteem thing, but some of it is also that I feel comfortable in my skin right now. I don’t see a huge need to look like some ideal someone else has set for me. Hubbs loves me for who I am and yes he is attracted to my body (He tells me this regularly so I know it to be true), his only ask is that I keep myself healthy. The number on the scale doesn’t determine that.