Introduction

Summary introductory paragraph here.

Optimize Your Health!

Here's What We Know: You can cure your chronic inflammation.

Most patients claim there is just not time to take care of themselves. Yet, surveys indicate that most people spend nearly four hours in leisure activities, and about three of those watching TV. Every one of us deserves leisure activities, absolutely! But if we used half of our leisure time to care for ourselves it would change our entire existence! If you include sleep in the equation, it takes about 10 hours of the day to care for yourself. If you give work 8 or 9 hours a day, that still leaves you hours every day to do all the other fun stuff in life.

Make time for these four self-care things.

1. You must take time to sleep. About 7 or 8 hours.
2. You must take time to prepare real food. About an hour a day.
3. You must take time to exercise. About a half hour every day.
4. You must take time to manage stress. About 20 minutes every day.

Watch your chronic inflammation, fatigue, pain, depression fade away. When you take time for these four things on a daily basis, over the course of weeks and months your life will change for the better. You'll be giving your body exactly what it needs to heal itself. Sleep is medicine. Food is medicine. Exercise is medicine. Stress management is medicine. You are the healer. Be your own doctor. Step up and claim control of your wellness.

This is a Gift

Can you treat this information as a gift? Have you ever noticed the minute someone tells you that you have to do something, it becomes something that you resist? It's human nature to resist advice. But, the choice is yours. You can take this information, and build a big story about why you can't do it and resist it with your whole heart. Or, you can take this information and hold it as a precious gift. This information isn't offered from a place of self-righteousness, but from a place of hope and healing. You can either resist it. Or open to it. You choose.

Can You Just Play?

Can you just play? Self-care can be a burden. Or it can be a joyful exploration of the world. Can you walk into this sphere of self-care with a playful heart? Can you change your thoughts and language to make this more playful? Don't use the words "I have to," use the words "I get to". I get to eat cabbage today! I get to try a zumba class today. I get to start the day with meditation. I get to go to bed early tonight.

And Then See What Happens

And then see what happens. When you joyfully explore the many options of self-care, pay attention to how it works for you. Learn what fits your schedule. Learn what makes you feel better. Learn what energizes you. Learn what keeps you on track. Learn what you love and how to treasure and care for yourself. This is such an important piece of the puzzle. Self-care isn't about learning to force yourself to do things you hate. It's about finding what you love and making time for it.

Be Nice

Be nice. Most of us are pretty mean to ourselves in our head. We use all sorts of terrible language when we talk to ourselves. We have terrible ideas about who we are and how capable we are. When you begin to explore self-care, it'll be a process. That means you'll have "failures." We often use those failures to prove our own worthlessness in our minds. And then use that as confirmation that we don't have to keep trying. It's time to stop treating yourself poorly. Be nice. Be kind. Be caring. Be a cheerleader for yourself. Use failures as information, rather than confirmation. Use failures to show something didn't suit you rather than confirmation that you're a loser. Failure is a goldmine of information waiting to be explored, not a description of your capability in the world.

Self-Care Tips

More tips for creating a life of self-care.

1. Try new things. You won't get very far if you keep doing what you've been doing. It takes bravery and courage to try new things. Sure it's scary, but it's also really exciting!
2. Make one change at a time. Making too many changes all at once doesn't usually work for people. Try one thing.
3. Hone your powers of observation. Be watchful of how changes you implement work for you. No one else can do this for you. You're the only one living in your body so you have to be the one to determine what is working and what isn't.
4. Begin again. Frisbee on Saturday. Do heavy yard work on Sunday. Do it!

Life Change is a Process

You aren't going to totally and completely change your life with one try. You'll fall off the wagon. We all do. That's just how it works. You can either throw your hands up and say, "See! I told you I'd fail" or you can begin again. This is what a process is. Learning with compassion and starting again. Over and over.