Why self-aware is the new self-care

Why self-aware is the new self-care 

Self-care has become a buzzword in recent years, a term that conjures up simple notions of bubble baths and face masks.  

In reality, self-care is as personal as your taste in music. It can absolutely be a bubble bath – or it could be a weekly boxing class, a walk in nature or a Friday night movie. 

But before you can embark on any self-care practice, it’s important to know what your body and mind really need and why. 

That’s why we’re inviting you to rewrite the rules you might hold (tightly) around self-care – what it is and what you should do. 

At its core, self-care starts with being self-aware. It’s designing from the inside out what you love and what creates calm and recharge for you, rather than taking off the shelf what works for someone else. 

The real invitation (and delight) is getting to know yourself at a whole new level, to get good at receiving and giving to yourself first.

Why is self-care important? 

It’s simple: self-care is important because it replenishes you physically and emotionally. But, for that same reason, it’s sometimes framed as selfish or indulgent.

Honestly? It’s time we moved on from the notion that self-care is self-indulgent. 

If you have a constant inner narrative telling you that filling your own cup is selfish and you always put yourself last on the list, it’s likely you’re already aware that these beliefs and habits are unhealthy. So what action can you take to change that rather than staying stuck? 

Our beliefs around self-care are linked to our identity and worth – and it’s WORTHY of doing something about. Change your unhealthy beliefs about caring for yourself.

Here’s a reframe for you: Self-care is the act of recharging. It helps you feel grounded and connected in your best version of self. It’s what allows you to live more above the joy line than below it. 

Recognising what self-care looks like for you and creating a regular self-care practice allows you to put your own oxygen mask on first, so you can show up as your best self more often.

How does awareness affect self-care?

If you’ve worked with foundher, you’ll know that awareness is the first pillar in our Ripple Effect Framework. We believe that knowing who you’re being affects what you’re doing 100 per cent of the time. 

Read that again.

How could what you do NOT be impacted by your energy, your emotions, your fatigue? It’s a key reason why the first modules in our Sustainable Pace program reintroduces you to yourself and discovering who you are being. 

We’ve become so externally focused and scanning for external change that we’ve lost the art of scanning within to know where we’re really at and instead operate on autopilot. This is the belief that our levels of fatigue, our ability to problem-solve, our mood and our time management is EXACTLY the same every day.

Sometimes we have the stamina to run 5K, some days 100 metres is a hard slog. Some days downward dog is a breeze, other days savasana is as good as it gets. The point is, we’re aware that our physical self isn’t the same day to day, so why do we default into thinking our meta-self stays static?

When you practise tuning into who you’re being at any given time, you can consciously choose the best form of self-care from your toolkit. 

How can I become more self-aware?

There are four elements to using self-awareness a self-care tool: 

·      Physical awareness

·      Emotional awareness

·      Inner battery level awareness

·      Nervous system awareness 

When you’re practising self-awareness on a daily basis, you tune into your physical state – for example, whether your body feels light, heavy, stiff, sore, cool, hot – and you take stock of the emotions that might be sitting with you, whether that’s joy, sadness, frustration or delight. 

Getting a sense of where you’re at physically and emotionally each day plays a role in what you may or may not choose to step into for the day ahead, helping you protect and enact your boundaries.

Your inner battery level awareness is a sense of your energy and bandwidth capacity. You probably have a constant awareness of your phone’s battery level, but how often do you check in on your own inner energy source? When you know your battery level or bandwidth on any given day, you can see what might be possible or not for you, and you can take action around how you might recharge in micro doses that add up over time. 

Understanding your autonomic nervous system and recognising when your body has tipped into fight-or-flight mode is a critical awareness for self-care.

The sympathetic nervous system is your body’s natural response to stress. It activates a cascade of hormones that prepare your body for survival, so you’ll feel your heart beat faster, your muscles tense and your breathing quicken. 

This system is useful in times of genuine danger, but when activated for long periods due to chronic stressors it can have harmful effects, such as high blood pressure and weight gain. 

The parasympathetic nervous system is the antidote to the stress response. When danger passes, the parasympathetic nervous system restores the body to a state of calm. But, if you experience frequent stress, the relaxation response may not get a chance to kick in. You can activate it yourself with breathing exercises and mindfulness techniques. 

Regularly checking in on the ‘real time data feed’ of your nervous system, whether it be through a meeting with yourself each morning and evening or a meditation practice, is a powerful tool. This awareness and check-in becomes a potent practice of restoring you, which should always be top of your list if you’re pursuing the most successful version of you. 

What does self-awareness look like as a self-care practice?

Imagine if you harnessed those four elements of self-awareness every day. 

If you practised four check-in rituals that monitored your physical state, emotional state, battery level and nervous system each morning, what would you learn? And what possibilities could you create with that biofeedback?

This high-level self-awareness is in direct service to your boundaries, helping you define your personal limits based on real data from your intelligence system – sensing, feeling and thinking.

You can use it to build a bank of routines and rituals, like meditation, movement and gratitude, that support the best version of you showing up consistently. 

And you can use it to help you determine if having a yin class over bikram, or scheduling a monthly recharge day that includes appointments with your chiro and massage therapist, or simply having an early night is what you and your body really need. 

That’s why we’re calling it: real self-care starts with being self-aware. 

How can I add a self-awareness practice to my daily rituals?

Let us take the pressure off. The secret formula to this work is getting good at knowing and feeling what you love, and what works for you – not some step-by-step process designed by someone else who doesn't live your life. 

At foundher, we’ve sprinkled practices (being work) that activate self-awareness across all our programs to equip you with the tools for getting to know you better.

One of these practices is our mindful body scan, which touches on all four self-awareness elements. It’s a potent ritual that takes no longer than 10 minutes and slips seamlessly into a daily meeting with yourself. We’ve used it to open strategic planning workshops, online masterclasses and in our mentorship programs.

If you’d like to experience checking in to meet yourself with where you’re really at each day, we’ve recorded it into an easy audio download so you can add this nurturing practice to your next morning meeting. 

We’d love to know how this self-awareness practice helps you transform your approach to self-care – come over to Instagram to continue the conversation.