With stress out of control these days, focusing on self care has become more important than ever. Too many people are trying to power through the stress instead of making time for themselves. The result is poor health - both physical and emotional. It may not be easy to make the time, but you’ll never regret the way you feel when you devote time to your self care.

Why do we have such a hard time giving ourselves enough time to take care of our physical and emotional wellbeing? For most of us it’s about time. When we don’t have enough time to get everything done, we run out of time for ourselves. Part of the problem is that we don’t make ourselves a priority. We allow everything else to monopolize our time. Every time we do that, it compounds the stress we already feel. And as we all know, stress causes most illnesses. 

If we really want to take care of our health, we must devote time to it. We can’t allow our busy lives to interfere with our ability to stay healthy. How much time you spend on this will depend on how much time you are willing to devote to taking control of your health. Not enough people think proactively about their physical and emotional health because of the way we’ve been conditioned.

The food industry is less concerned with healthy ingredients and more concerned with taste. The more we like something, the more we’ll buy it. The problem is, most of our food has been processed and contains toxins and unhealthy ingredients and over time adversely affects our health. So until people make a conscious decision to change the way they eat, the problem will continue. Of course that’s easier said than done, so making incremental changes over time will increase your chance of success.

In addition to food toxins, our bodies are adversely affected by environmental and other types of toxins. Over time these toxins become problematic for our liver. When your liver is overworked, it can’t properly do its job. But when your liver is working the way it’s meant to, you’re not going to have as many health problems.

Body and mind health not only keeps us healthy, it keeps us in balance. In order to stay in balance we must focus on the amount of stress we allow into our lives. We allow too many people to put us into “fight or flight” because we don’t know how to say no. When we start taking control of our stress and practice self care, we begin to want more peace in our lives. This is where self care becomes important. When your nervous system is stuck in “fight or flight”, it can be difficult to get back to homeostasis. This is what self care does for the mind and body. But it needs to be a modality that energetically works on the nervous system. Having your nails done is not considered self care. However a massage is considered self care. 

What are some self care modalities to look into? Here are some that I recommend:

• Yoga is an excellent way to wind down at the end of the day because it helps to loosen up tight muscles. But yoga is most effective when combined with breathwork so I recommend learning from a teacher who explains how to breathe properly during each pose.
• Immerse yourself in the soothing frequencies of a sound bath. Instruments such as crystal bowls, flute, and chimes calm the nervous system and may help to bring you out of “fight or flight”. 
• Sound and light therapy is another way to calm the body. The Harmonic Egg combines music and color to shift the body out of “fight or flight” and into homeostasis. It is an effective way to reduce stress, while experiencing soothing music and color. 

Now is the time to prioritize your health. By making a few small changes to your busy schedule, you will give yourself the gift of self care. When you care for your health in positive ways, your life will begin to improve.

Jean Hanson is co-owner of Realign Your Life Wellness Center in Mesa, AZ. The Center offers sound and light therapy with the Harmonic Egg. Steve Hanson is a sound healing practitioner and offers bi-monthly sound baths. Appointments can be booked online at RealignYourLifeAZ.com or by calling 480-613-9137.