Have you been taking care of yourself lately?

Have you been looking after yourself? This question is often overlooked as we zoom through our busy schedules and sit through countless zoom meetings whether it's for work or school. Nonetheless, we tend to forget that our top priorities should be our own wellbeing and mental health.

Over the summer, I was extremely fixated on finishing my degree that I sacrificed having time for family, friends, and even myself. In my head, I felt the need to accomplish something as soon as possible because we were all quarantined anyway; what else was I going to do? This ended up being both detrimental and successful for me, but looking back, I wish I had cut myself some slack and focused more on my wellbeing.

In spite of the ongoing pandemic and transitioning to online classes, I forced myself to take more classes than recommended (not to mention these were more fast-paced as 4-month courses were being condensed to 6 weeks). Whenever I stopped studying and took much-needed breaks, I'd feel guilty and felt the need to do work 24/7. Weekdays became days to attend class and take some notes, while weekends were just extra days to do more school work I was behind on. On top of this, I was working in the healthcare field and was constantly exposing myself to potential COVID patients. I was too afraid to decline shifts that I wasn't obliged to take, because I felt like my job needed me more than ever when the pandemic emerged. I would bring school work to my shifts, hoping that I could do some assignments if it ever died down (which barely happened). Yes, I did fulfill getting a degree faster than I thought. Yes, I was earning enough money to sustain myself, but at what cost? What I didn't realize was that I needed to take care of myself more, and I was so focused on fulfilling my goals and others' needs that I forgot to tend to myself.

Frances Nellie for LSW Mind Cards

A few months ago, our team came across LSW Mind Cards, which is a company that encourages positivity to create a more fulfilling environment for yourself and the people around you. We tried the general pack of mind cards which has a mixture of daily rituals, reflections, gratitude prompts, journal prompts, and random acts of kindness. I'd pick a card each day and either reflect on a given quote, encourage myself to think about things I'm grateful for, make adjustments to my daily rituals, use the given journal prompts to maintain a positive energy, or even do acts of kindness towards other people. For example, one kindness card I got was to buy a random stranger a cup of coffee, and that made me realize that if that was done to me by someone else, it would make the rest of my day really happy.

Using these cards has encouraged me to take a breather every single day, appreciate the things around me, spread kindness, and most importantly, take care of myself and let loose at times. Although I am still learning to prioritize myself more, I have now learned that you don't necessarily have to sacrifice your needs for other people; it is okay to say no when you're not ready or comfortable about something whether that's your job, a relationship, or for anyone else.

I am aware that we are all a work in progress, but let this be a reminder to continue working on your own beautiful project - YOU!

xx,