Happy Month of Love! Welcome to week 3 of the 3 Week Love Challenge!
Over the past two weeks, we’ve talked about demonstrating love for a family member and a friend. This week, we’ll be focusing on showering yourself with love. This may sound a bit odd to some of you but stick with me and we’ll tease this out.
Whether you’re a mom or a teacher, you’re used to taking care of others and self-care tends to not be a priority, so it may or may not happen on any given day. However, if we don’t take care of ourselves, not only will we burnout quickly, but we tend to loose ourselves in either our profession or motherhood.
Before becoming a mother, I defined myself as being a teacher and a student. When I went on maternity leave and graduated, I started feeling like something was missing and was unable to find peace and contentment with where I was in my life. I decided that something had to change, so after a lot of research and practicing a variety of different techniques, I found the following four points to be the most helpful when showing myself love.
The following are my Colours of Self-Love.
1. The Colour of Understanding
I took some time to journal and realized that motherhood was just another facet of my life. It didn’t necessarily mean that one part of was over. I realized that I could still enjoy teaching and learning while being a mother. I just had to move things around so that I could embrace different identities.
If you’re struggling with something right now, journal to find some clarity. Look at where you were about 5 years ago and where you’ve come in that time. What have you accomplished? Who have you met along the way? What impact have you had and on whom? This last one may seem like a loaded question but realize that as a parent or educator, you are impacting the lives of your children, which is not an easy task and cultivating this relationship is an ongoing process.
2. The Colour of Knowledge
A great way to continuously feel like we are moving forward is to learn something new. I encourage you to pick up a book, read articles, listen to podcasts or watch videos about a topic that interests you.
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in learning more about equity in the education system. I also really enjoying reading about organizational hacks because this makes me so happy. So, I’ve found a few blogs and videos to enjoy in my downtime.
3. The Colour Of Boundaries
This is such an important topic and I will go into more depth about it in another article. For now though, I’d like you to realize that one of the greatest gifts you’ll ever give yourself is setting boundaries. Strangely enough, I didn’t learn about this jewel of a concept until I was in my early 20s and it changed my life dramatically.
I know a lot of people tell you to learn to say no, by setting goals and then eliminating everything that doesn’t align with it. That’s great advice and I agree with it but I’d like you to take it a step further and look at what brings you joy and what sucks it out of your life. You may need to do certain tasks that don’t make you happy because perhaps the end result is what will propel you forward. However, if something or someone is toxic for your life, make a note of it and send it packing. This is harder said than done but it’ll make your life easier and lighter.
4. The Colour Of Expression
Spend a few minutes this week doing something that speaks to your creative side. Perhaps indulge in art, singing, dancing, writing a book and so forth. This will give you something to look forward to. I’m sure you can find at least five or ten minutes to express yourself in some way.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it, my friends. These are my top 4 tips for caring for showering yourself with love. You don’t need to practice this all in one sitting. Focus on one step at a time, and in time, you will naturally start to me some time for yourself.
As with the previous two challenges, in Four Simple Ways To Show Love To Your Family Members and Four Simple Ways to Talk To Your Friend, I’ll be joining you on this journey as well. I need to spend more time on The Colours of Understanding as I’ve started feeling a bit restless again and need some time understanding that everything is okay and that I am where I should be at this point in my life. To help myself stay on this journey, I’ll be working on some mindfulness through gratitude.
For self-care strategies, please check out my post on Self-Care Strategies For Teachers to Improve Work-Life Balance. Make some time to care for and demonstrate love to yourself as that is where true love begins. In the comments below, I would love to hear about how you chose to follow through with this week’s challenge.
Remember to grab your Free Self-Care Strategies so that you can continue on this journey.
For additional Self-Love reflection guides, like the one below, click HERE!
If you would like to demonstrate love by sending Valentine’s Day Cards, please click on the image below:
For Valentine’s Day Literacy activities for your young ones, click on the following image:
Take care and Happy Month Of Love,
Charlotte
