The Importance Of Checking In On Yourself

**Collaborative post**

If you’re a parent or have people you care about or are responsible for, it’s not uncommon to constantly check up on the most important people in your life to ensure that they’re okay, functioning well, and happy.

Over time, we find that giving all of ourselves is something we do as the default, and it can tire us out. Of course, your caring spirit, sense of duty and empathy are fantastic virtues, and you should never feel ashamed of them.

Yet sometimes, it can be that we forget to care for ourselves as part of this. There’s no wisdom in that. What matters, then, is being balanced, and focusing on reasserting yourself, understanding your own needs, and committing to self-care as and when you can.

But it can be easy to brush off your own needs if you’ve become used to doing that. The importance of checking in on yourself from time to time, then, really matters. But how can you do this? Should you just ask yourself questions, or attempt something a little more substantial? In this post, we’ll discuss that and more:

Consider A “Current Life Review”

Very rarely do we get the opportunity to sit down and pore over everything going on in our lives. We tend to just deal with things as they happen, reacting to stimuli and events with a sense of immediate decision making. This is why, from time to time, it can be helpful to sit down and focus on what’s going on with you right now.

Journaling can be a good way to start this. What’s on your mind at this moment? Why does it matter to you? What could you improve? Who do you appreciate, and who might be bringing you down? What are you worried about, and what issues do you need to work on? You’d be surprised that if giving yourself a few hours to sit down and write about this, you can think more easily about your day-to-day planning. You might realize that you’re not happy in your job, or perhaps you need to assert yourself more in your relationship. Having this time to think makes a tremendous difference.

Take Yourself On A Spa Day

Treating your body well can also be a balm for your mind, and when you have plenty of pent-up stress that you’re not dealing with, this is truly tantamount to proper self-care. Taking yourself on an appropriate spa day is the best place to begin, then, because it enables you to enjoy a simple, low-effort, relaxing time, perhaps even with a friend.

A massage, sitting in the jacuzzi, or even working out before indulging in your pampered experience, all of this can make a massive difference in how comfortable you feel. It might be that you schedule a weekend away with your partner so you can enjoy this treatment during your birthday, too. No matter your reasoning, you’ll come out feeling like a new person, and that in itself can help you see things more clearly.

Talk To Someone You Trust

It’s good to talk to someone you trust if you can. This might involve expert, impartial counselling from The Awareness Centre, which can help you thoroughly, or it might simply be talking to a friend you really can trust to speak with you honestly.

It’s not so much about what the counsellor or your friend might say that matters though, it’s about you having the free space to speak your mind and to categorize your thoughts through speech. It’s very easy to just let our internal dialogue float around our minds without much consequence, but that can be a problem in the long run.

Talking to someone you can appreciate and trust really will make a major difference in how willing and able you are to speak, in realizing how you actually think about certain situations, and by expressing things that you didn’t even know you had on your mind. Sometimes, to check in on yourself, you just have to talk. 

Treat Yourself As A Friend

Have you ever sincerely asked a friend how they’ve been doing? If so, you likely knew that you only wanted that person to be okay, to trust you, and to speak if they felt like speaking. But have you ever turned that question on yourself? Have you treated yourself like a friend you’re responsible for as of late? 

It might just be that this altered sense of thinking can make the rest of your month a little easier. There’s no shame in wanting to do this, it certainly beats the alternative.

With this advice, we hope you can sustain the importance of checking in on yourself going forward.