What Happens When You Don't Take Care of Yourself? 

Today, we're going to be talking about self-care, what it is and why it is important. Self-care is simply taking care of your own mental health so that you can help others. And that you can give out because you have been pouring into yourself. When we don't pour into ourselves and maintain our mental health. And we have really nothing to give to other people, and we're probably giving to them from our own reserve. So, it's important that we fill ourselves up, even if that's taking an hour out of the week where I can just go and unwind, pray and write things out that I'm feeling and kind of deal with things rather than ignoring the things that just come up throughout our life.

What To Do When You Spread Yourself Too Thin?

So, it's checking in with yourself and even checking in with God and saying, okay, how am I actually doing? It's going to help sustain you in life rather than you feeling like you're being drawn really thin. And it's important for us to pour into ourselves before we get to that point of being stretched too thin. I know that not everybody has a full day to do this. So, what you could do is plan one, two, or a few hours in your week where you get a babysitter, your husband watches the kids, you plan for that time to be your self-care time. So, whether that's going to get a pedicure, going for a long drive, journaling, praying for a long time. It's going to help lower your stress and lower your anxiety. It's going to help maintain your overall mental health. And you'll even notice that you are probably a lot nicer to your family, to your kids, to your spouse. Those around you will thank you for you using self-care.

Why Self-Care Is Not Selfish? 

And I just want to say that it is not selfish for you to use self-care...when you're using it the right way. It's important and it's necessary and you are totally worth it. You absolutely need it. When we don't use self-care, that's when we end up burnt out, stressed, anxious, depressed, angry, irritated, and all of these things. And if you're feeling some of those things, that might be a sign to tell you that you need to take some time out and have some self-care time. But you know what you like to do, so if you like to draw or color, whatever it is you like to do, do it. And to actually take time, to enjoy hanging out with yourself and spending time with yourself.

For more from our friend, Karissa, at The Rooted Fruit, watch, "Hanging On When Life Is Uncertain".