**Self Care is Vital

An article in the Bay Area Parent magazine has me thinking about self care.  This was also part of the training I attended this week.  What are you doing to take care of yourself.  We all work hard, but what do we do at work, and after work to take care of yourself.
At the training some things mentioned were exercise, having a pet such as a dog or cat to pet and reflecting to improve.
The article by Cindy Kaplan gives some specific ideas.  The article is geared towards parents of children with special needs, but we all need to take care of ourselves.  These are some thoughts I have about the article:
1. Remove yourself from the situation, lie down on the ground.  Lying down gives you a different perspective,  this could be similar to remembering our place in the world and is a technique to do this.
2. Put on some classical music.  Music can bring down the stress or tension in a situation, if the music is conducive to do this.  Hard rock with the steady third beat harder, and rap music with lyrics that excite and arouse won't do this.  But classical music will.  If classical music isn't your think, easy listening will also bring emotional levels down.
3. Stop outside and look at the sky.  Again this is a grounding strategy to remember the wonder of things and our place in the universe.
4. Give yourself permission to table a discussion.  This is a hard one for me sometimes, but I have taught time out as a way to not avoid, but discuss things at a better time.  In our training it was emphasized that being able to say, lets hold that for a moment and look at it in more detail, are good strategies for reflecting.
5. Light a candle.  A change of mood, and the process of doing something can bring stress levels down.
6. Express yourself creatively.  How often can we put things into paper through art or  writing.  Dance and music also give a chance at creation.
7.  Breathe.  take time to focus on breathing, and allow yourself to breathe deeply.  This is a good way to soothe over stressful situations.  You can breathe pains and stress away.  Recently when I burnt myself, when I remembered to breathe the pain was much less.
A few self care techniques should be in everyone's repertoire.  Also you should frequently ask yourself, What am I doing to take care of myself?