Thoughts on Self-Care

My time in seminary is drawing to a close; this time next week, I will be completely done with my second master's degree and I will have a master's of divinity. This journey of self-care has been one of my final projects. At the beginning of the semester, I crafted a final project that would benefit me for the semester and my ministry moving forward. I committed to caring for myself well and discovering self-care tactics that are sustainable and life-giving and I chose to blog about them here. Now, as the semester is coming to a close I am reflecting on the what I have learned throughout this project and how caring for myself has impacted my life.

This semester, I have been doing my clinical pastoral education (CPE) internship. So, I have been a chaplain intern at a hospital. Doing CPE while being a full time student, made me realize that I needed to take care of myself. I needed a way to let out my stress and so I laced up my running shoes and hit the pavement. Running has been one of my primary care tactics and I have discussed it throughout this journey. This is going to be a practice I hopefully (if my knees can handle the impact) will keep up for many years to come. There is something so cathartic about pounding my feet into the ground to let off stress and focusing on my breath that just gets me in touch with my body, my heart, and God.

Over the past few months, I have hit a "wall" where I have gotten physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted and needed to take a mental health day to get myself back on track. My hope is that I do not hit as many "walls"; that I become better at caring for myself, drawing boundaries, and taking on an appropriate amount of responsibility. The thing is, self-care seems like something easy to do, however, I have realized how easy it is to skip my run, to order take out instead of cooking (multiple nights in a row), to avoid doing my journaling. I have found out that it is so easy to ignore the things that I know will give me life--to mindlessly scroll on my Instagram or watch TV.

It is harder to choose to care for myself well because it does require some level of effort. Self-care is not simply bubble baths, chocolate, and getting my nails done--these are a part of my self-care habits, however, they are not the base of my self-care. I needed practices that helped get me and keep me healthier--physically, emotionally, and mentally.

What I have learned is that ministry, in whatever forms, is highly stressful (like most jobs) and in order for me to care for others, I must first care for myself. Tending to myself to do the work of ministry does not just happen for a few hours one day a week, no, it happens from consistently tending to my needs a little every day. And by doing this work regularly, I have grown into a more confident, less stressed, happier person. Of course I still get stressed and have days where my couch and comfy clothes win over my running shoes or I scroll on my phone instead of journaling but that is to be expected. I just have to be mindful to not let the couch and phone win too many days in a row.

Friends, what is something you think you could add into your life that would help you deal with stress or just take better care of yourselves?

Thanks for following along on this journey!

Grace, Peace, Blessings, and Love,

Margaret