Self-Care for the Soul: Nourish, Simplify and Charge!
Happy New Year! What are some of your personal or professional goals for this coming new year?
One idea that you may find helpful in achieving your plans is to select three words that capture the essence of those objectives. It was Chris Brogan who started this idea several years ago.
The advantage of selecting three words is that it enables you to have something concrete to visualize and carry with you throughout the year to help inspire and motivate you to achieve your goal(s) throughout the year.
For example, last year, my three words were Clear, Reach & Embrace! and the year before, Daring, Connection and Self-Care.
This Year, My Three Words Are: Nourish, Simplify and Charge!
Nourish – You may also benefit from upping the ante in terms of nourishment…
- Could you be eating a bit healthier than what you are currently? How well are you taking care of you and your body? When we give ourselves low quality nutrients, we are running on low poor quality fuel and harming our future health/longevity.
- Try to eat more fruit and vegetables and less sugar.
- Consider preparing some of these healthy lunches from Eating Well.
- Are you getting enough sleep/rest? The vast majority of us are not… Most of us should be getting about 7 hours of sleep/night. However, many of us are engaged with one electronic screen or another… Not sleeping enough is harming us in the present, and could even raise our risk of obtaining Alzheimer’s down the road.
- A few tips to help you get more sleep:
- Decide (and stick) to a better sleep schedule
- Avoid electronic screens for an hour before going to sleep
- If using a computer at night, employ free software like f.lux that makes the color of your computer’s display darken at night and be less stimulating.
- Create a relaxing bedtime ritual such as taking a bath/shower and reading or meditating before going to sleep.
- A few tips to help you get more sleep:
- Are you playing enough/at all? As per Dr. Stuart Brown in Brene Brown’s “The Gift of Imperfection,” (affiliate link) the opposite of play is not work but depression!
- Sufficient play is critical for our wellbeing, creativity and our success. Look to engage in play that incorporates the following 7 properties:
- Without purpose
- Not required
- Delights
- Flow
- Free to be me
- Spontaneous
- Could keep on doing it (so much fun)
- For me, art/art journaling/journaling is one fun activity that I enjoy 🙂
- Sufficient play is critical for our wellbeing, creativity and our success. Look to engage in play that incorporates the following 7 properties:
- Are you spending enough time with others? Some of us are not. As social workers and mental health professionals, we make sure to be there for our clients and our family but are we making it a priority to spend time with a friend who is there for us?
- Relationships are critical for our wellbeing; it is the number one item leading to happiness and they help us get through difficult times.
What thoughts come to your mind as you think about nourishment? For me, all of these ideas were a natural extension of the concepts of self-care and embrace that I had started working on two years ago.
- One tool that you may find helpful in establishing a new habit is registering for Christine Carters’s free online course. This is a 12 week week email and text-based course.
Simplify – This is another area that you (and your clients) may identify with.
- Do you have too much stuff? Could your office/home benefit from some decluttering? When we keep only those items that spark our joy, we are not only more able to get more done but we have an office/home that brings us much greater peace and happiness.
- Could one (or more) of your work/home routines be reorganized so as to take up less time? Or might you benefit from taking periodic short breaks to improve your focus/productivity?
- Sometimes by combining two or three tasks normally done separately, you may be able to become more efficient and save yourself some valuable time (allowing yourself more time for the above mentioned play! ).
- To maximize focus/productivity and feel less stress, scientists recommend we work for 90 minutes and then take a break of 10 minutes; advocates of the pomodoro technique work in shorter bursts and take more frequent breaks. (For the pomodoro technique, you set a timer for 25 minutes, and when it goes off, take a short break for 5 minutes. After you’ve done four Pomodoro sessions, you take a longer break of 30 minutes.)
- Do you sometimes feel stressed or overwhelmed?
- Meditation is one of the best ways you can manage stress. It clears your mind and helps you restore your equilibrium. I’ve been meditating at least once a day for 10 to 20 minutes for a few years and it’s been a wonderful gift. I’d like to increase that to 30 minutes per day!
- Also, note that the above mentioned ideas of playing, eating well and getting sufficient rest all enable you to cope with stress better.
- Some additional methods of self-care that you may employ.
Charge – I chose charge to be a stronger, more action-oriented word than merely venture or accomplish because I’d like to CHARGE with regards to a particular professional goal this year.
- You may wish to CHARGE AHEAD with nourishing or simplifying your life. Alternatively, there may be another goal that is high up on your list for this year.
- To succeed in charging ahead (or in making headway with improvements in any area), make your objective(s) SMART, that is:
- Specific – What exactly will you do?
- Measurable – How will you know that you’ve met your goal?
- Achievable – What (reasonable) steps are you going to take to reach your goal?
- Relevant – What about your goal makes it important to you?
- Time-bound – When do you want to complete your goal?
Below is a graphic representing Nourish, Simplify and Charge.
How about you? What are your three words for 2016? Or would you rather choose one word?
Like this post? Please share it!
Happy New Year, Dorlee!
Wonderful, your approach to introducing your 2016 Three Words. You’ve made your Three Words do-able for us all via your practical tips!
And for your 2016 journey, here are three quotes ** embedded with your Three Words ** that spurred my imagination and I hope yours, too.
+ If art is to **nourish** the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him ~ John F. Kennedy
+ The architect should strive continually to **simplify** ; the ensemble of the rooms should then be carefully considered that comfort and utility may go hand in hand with beauty ~ Frank Lloyd Wright
+ Life takes on meaning when you become motivated, set goals and **charge** after them in an unstoppable manner ~ Les Brown
Know that you are an artist who is nourishing her community, helping us to arrange our life’s rooms simply and authentically and is the charge pointing us forward.
Yes, please keep being unstoppable!
Hugs,
Jackie Yun
Happy New Year, Jackie 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing these three lovely quotes that accompany (or fuel) my three words so well!
Aww, thank you – you are most kind in seeing me as a nourishing vitamin for the community. You have such a beautiful way with thoughts and words…
And your support in my being “unstoppable” is most appreciated!
I can easily see how you inspire your clients to #TakeThisMoment to make a difference in their leadership, career direction & life!
Hugs,
Dorlee
My word for 2016 is “paradigm shift”, and I’m setting intentions to experience paradigm shifts in how I take care of my health, how I give and receive love, how to add more adventure in my life, how to experience more freedom, and to have a higher sense of peace and awareness.
Happy New Year, Dorlee!
Hi Nicole,
Thanks so much for sharing your word and your kind wishes.
I love “paradigm shift” and how you plan to create this in your life vis a vis health, love, adventure/freedom and peace/awareness. It sounds like you have an exciting year ahead and I’m wishing you much fun and success this coming year 🙂
Wow – before I read Jackie’s comment, I was thinking similarly, that you’ve made your ‘three words’ actionable for all of us. I also found myself relating to your words!
For example, in acting upon the word, “nourish,” you reference getting enough sleep and setting a schedule/bedtime routine. This is something our household (hubby/I) have worked on over the past few years, and while we generally acquire enough ‘hours’ of sleep, our sleep schedules sometimes get out of sync with our goals and current situations. We most recently tweaked our routine to be ‘earlier to bed/earlier to rise’ based on a dramatic shift in our work/life schedule this time of year as well as some new personal goals we need to ‘fit into’ that already tight schedule.
And interestingly, the changes we are making in regard to “nourish” align concurrently with “simplify;” in particular your suggestion to reorganize, and possibly combine, two to three tasks (it’s like you were reading my mind :). I guess what I’m trying to say is that I love how your words can expand to influence your readers’ lives, as well.
Moreover, playing, meditating, decluttering as well as charging ahead are all action words that I’ve witnessed you exuding in your day-to-day life (by way of our virtual conversations) in the past. I’m delighted to hear you are further focusing in on these areas through your carefully selected three words. I wish you all the best as you aspire to act upon them in ways such as increasing your meditation time and charging forward on a particular professional goal.
Oh, and I echo Jackie’s final remarks regarding your artistry and nourishment, as well as her plea to you to, “Please keep being unstoppable!”
Jacqui
Hi Jacqui,
I’m so glad that you could relate to my three words 🙂 How funny that you and your hubby have been working on similar items such as sleep, simplifying/reorganizing… we do indeed seem to be on the same wavelengths!
Thank you so much for your good wishes vis a vis my three words and charging ahead… you and Jackie are most kind and supportive in saying that I should be “unstoppable!”
Hugs and Happy 2016!
Hi Dorlee,
Knowing you as I do, I can see how these words will serve you well in 2016, both in your private and professional life.
Nourishment – emotional, mental, physical, spiritual – provides the fuel to drive you efficiently to the end of the year.
Simplify – keeps you focused on the things that matter.
Charge – action. Such an important step that moves one from knowledge into wisdom.
I learned a great word this week, which fits in well with play. I am applying the principle to one of my theme words – (say yes).
Ludik – playful in an aimless way.
No purpose – just the joy of no-limits-no-purpose play. Imagination, rejuvenation and a little youthfulness, as well!
Happy 2016!
Hi Marianna,
Thanks so much for your kind and enthusiastic support of my three words.
I love your addition/new word of “ludic,” playing in an aimless way. I think we could all use some of this, as part of our nourishment 🙂
Happy 2016!