Check-In With Your Own Wellbeing
Many of you will be providing emotional support and practical support for others in many different ways and run the risk of not paying enough attention to your own wellbeing. I want to keep this really simple, quick and easy to do because I want you to do it!
#selfcare has over 20 million hits on Instagram!! We’ve seen a significant shift in our interest and awareness in self-care as a concept. I think it can also be an overused and misunderstood term.
At a basic level self-care is the ability to get yourself up and dressed, out of the house (once a day at the moment) and functioning in the world. Sometimes that is harder than it sounds! The very real and serious side of self-care is that if you don't stop and pause, life will do it for you.
Wellbeing is literally defined as the absence of disease. I wish this for all of you, especially at this time.
Taking ownership of our wellbeing means starting with self awareness, becoming clear about what depletes and nourishes you. Get really clear about where you are, rather than where you think you are.
You may be aware of a coaching tool called the ‘wheel of life’, it’s a great tool to help you get clarity and insight into different areas of your life. I’ve created a special version for these working from home, all in it together, lockdown times.
The wheel below includes eight key areas that are important to wellbeing. You can draw your own or download a copy here. Feel free to add or change some areas if there are things that you know are more important to your wellbeing.
Wheel of Life for these ‘stay at home, pandemic times’
Take some time to consider each area and make some notes about what each one means to you (there may be some overlap). Whatever comes to mind is perfectly OK, try not to overthink it, try not to make it too complex.
Now take each area and give it a number between 1 and 10 - 1 being the worst it could be and 10 being AMAZING.
What do you notice? How do you feel?
Now, with new awareness and clarity which area would you like to work on? This might be the area that feels the most important or it might be the one that feels the easiest. What one thing could you do to improve it, to increase number up by 1 or 2?
Once you’ve done this, take a moment to check in with how confident you feel about achieving this? Hang on to your wheel and choose a time in a week or so come back and check-in with your own wellbeing again.
