Every year I make a short video to walk you through creating your self-care wheel and see what jumps out as your self-care priorities. Here is the 2020 5 minute video on how to make your self-care wheel.I have heard from some of you that you are using this video in your staff teams. I love seeing the wheels you make and what feels like a priority for your self-care now.
For 2020, I had some new things come forward as priorities. I am planning to do more personal retreat time, being sure I have even more time for contemplation and reflection. I have some daily time for retreating with my guitar, reading, and writing, but this year I am saving full days weekly for personal retreat time.
Writing is a place on my wheel for 2020. I write haiku, which is playful and relates to nature. I also have several writing projects that I want to complete in 2020. The word "completing" kept coming up in the writing section of my self-care wheel.
I suggest you make your wheel a few different times so you can see what happens as you focus in.
Here are the things that came up as priorities for my self-care wheel for 2020.
Though I've practiced mediation for a long time, this year my meditation is expanding in two ways. One is Mindful Self-Compassion and the other is being more mindful with my phone and social media. Less is more. Media mindfulness.
Family time feeds my heart. As my children have grown up, I understand the need to do their own lives and I am trying to find ways this year to spend quality fun and meaningful time together.
Since I broke my hip in 2019, I am increasing my walking. I can't jog like I used to, but I would like to be able to take much longer walks. I am building up to a 5K as part of my walking self-care. There is a tipping point when I push my hip too hard, it hurts and I don't really gain anything. Exercise is a key place on my wheel. I'm a daily exerciser. I swim, lift weights, pilates, walk. This year I am also hoping to get into yoga.
And the final place that showed up on my self-care wheel for 2020 is clearing and getting rid of things that I am not using. This also feels like a mindfulness practice. I can't tell you the number of times I have thought about and half-heartedly cleared drawers, closets, and stuff. It has never shown up as part of my self-care. Seeing it as connected to my self-care is putting a whole different spin on it. It also feels connected to caring for our environment. I am seeing it as changing my lifestyle to be more in tune with living in harmony with the planet. I feel like I am waking up.
The process of making a self-care wheel helps you clarify what is really true for you and what is relevant right now for your self-care. I have been sharing this process for several years and if you do it yearly, you will find that you are strengthening your inner core in layers. You can expand outward and see things building on each other. One year "meditation" was on my wheel. Just practicing meditation. And that has now expanded to an awareness practice that shows up in my writing, exercise, my social media, personal retreat time, and self-compassion.
If you are doing this for the first time, please save one spot on your wheel for FOUNDATION. Your foundation is sleep, eat, exercise. When you get depleted in any way, always return to focus on your foundation.
If you have been doing the wheel several years with me, your Foundation is probably embedded knowing. You know when to return to it. You can fill in 6 spaces on your wheel or save one for Foundation.
Take good care of you in 2020. If you get time, send me an email and share what showed up on your self-care wheel.
