The self-care habit I stopped to find more ease

When I worked as a lawyer I tracked my work days in six-minute increments for almost ten years. (If your immediate thought is that that sounds terrible, you would be correct.) When I finished work in the evenings or on weekends, I had limited energy left, so I put pressure on myself to make my self-care as efficient as possible. 

When you’re working too much, feel burnt out and realise you need to start prioritising self care more, it can make sense to track a new habit. Small wins can give you motivation to keep going, make incremental gains and create a routine.  

So, I got into bullet journalling and tracked things like:

• how many steps I walked every day, 
• how often I did yoga or went to the gym, 
• how often I practised Spanish, and
• how many books I read. 

I spent a lot of time disconnected from my body and its needs. I tried to force myself to meet certain goals, and approached self care as if it was a job. Often the goals were too demanding, I’d fail to meet them and make myself feel worse.