Lessons in Self Care: In Sickness and in Health

When we last left our fearless heroine, she had just returned from a visit to Mexico with her husband and had finally started to get over her second degree sunburn.

Fast forward to now. It's been a month since returning from Mexico and I'm now couch- and bed- bound thanks to a bout of pneumonia.

For those keeping track, I had surgery and a subsequent cold in January, a second degree burn in February and pneumonia in March. If I keep it up, my husband's health insurance is going to drop me just on account of my inability to stay healthy.

These illnesses -- and their subsequent bedrests -- have offered a lot of time for me to do some introspection. I definitely see that I do way too much and that my body is paying a pretty steep price. Even now, with my disgusting coughs coming fewer and farther between, I'm looking down the pipe of a month-long exhaustion fest. A trip to Target yesterday -- my first time out of the house in 3 days --- rendered me so tired I had to take 2 naps and sleep 10 hours just to make up for the 30 minutes out of the house.

I've come to the conclusion that I need to turn my self-care up a notch. This self-caring stepmom is going to start focusing more on herself and wellness and less on people or things that take without giving back.

Things I'm going to start doing more of:

• Yoga. I haven't done it in a while but I can feel my body and my mind getting all tensed up and it doesn't feel very good.  As soon as I can downward dog without needing to go right to sleep, my yoga mat is going to become a permanent fixture in my living room. 
• Saying no. This one always seems the hardest to do, but if I don't want to take the kidlets shopping or to this that and the other, I'm going to speak up and say so. Same goes for the adults in my family. 
• Reclaiming my 'me' time. For a woman that lives by herself during the week, I have very little me time. Mind you, half of my free time is spent doing things for me (like Karate) but I think I can do a better job of taking back my nights. I WILL designate Tuesday nights as my NOTHING BUT ME night. NOTHING BUT ME will consist of bubble baths, nail painting, reading and loofahing things (although maybe not in the order). The point is, I need to reclaim my time and stop giving it away. 

I also want to give a huge shout out to my husband who, despite not being able to make it home this weekend, was the best long-distant husband a girl could ask for. When he thought he was coming home, he'd made sure the kids weren't going to come into the house so that 1) they wouldn't get sick too and 2) I could focus on myself getting better instead of  taking care of everyone else. My husband was going to give up a weekend with his kids so I could rest, relax and recuperate. It gives me goose bumps to know he was that caring. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) American Airlines didn't want to cooperate with our plan and he wound up staying in Canada all weekend long. In the long run, he saved himself from the evil pneumonia germs and the kids were never in question.

So, ladies, I implore you to do what I'm doing and take great care of yourselves. Don't wind up so overbooked, overstressed and overdone that you're sitting in a doctor's office with a breathing treatment machine hearing that you have pneumonia and will be exhausted for at least a month.

Create your lists of things you're going to start doing for yourself and stop doing for others. And of course, share if you want to in the comments.

xoxo