Nourish to Flourish

Just a little while ago, I woke up feeling uncharacteristically grumpy. Though I’m not always a bright and shining star of positivity, I tend to be generally cheerful, pleasant, and optimistic, even irritatingly so.

So, I decided to pay a visit to a massage therapist. I came into her work space, and eventually settled in for a massage that was both therapeutic and transformational. Not only did my physiology shift, but I came out of that room with a freshly empowered perspective on some important ideas.

As I was laying on the massage therapists’ table, my thoughts wandered to the idea of self-care. I realized how long it had been since I had taken some time for myself. I couldn’t recall the last time I had taken “me-time” in terms of rest, replenishment, and relaxation. It felt like I’ve been missing something essential.

You’ve got to nourish in order to flourish!

I realized the source of my uncharacteristic grumpiness:

You’ve got to nourish in order to flourish! Self-care: the patient, persistent and careful practice of nourishing yourself, leads you to flourish!

If you don’t nourish, it will be difficult to flourish.

Years ago, had this conversation played itself out in my head, I would have jumped all over myself with the thinking that my “job” is to care for others, and so I don’t need to care for myself. The tape in my head at the time would have screamed that “serving others means sacrifice!”

I am so happy to share that I have spent time and effort to re-program those self-abusive parts of my brain, and so I was able to think about self-care and why it is so important.

The truth is that we all have an opportunity to feed and nourish ourselves. Your greatest friend is self-care. When we take time to care for ourselves, we find comfort, strength, and guidance. And we receive profound gifts to give to others.

 We need to nourish to flourish:

• Physically – Healthy diet, appropriate amount of sleep, and regular exercise
• Mentally – A positive attitude and a healthy frame of mind
• Emotionally – Replenishing the tank emotionally
• Spiritually – Finding your spirituality and healthy values
• Relationally – Healthy connections and relationship

Wisdom suggests that we should invest in our greatest personal asset: our own physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and relational health.

Nina Amir wrote:

“How you treat your body affects every area of your performance, including your ability to do your job, enjoy your relationships and hobbies, and live a long, healthy life. If you don’t feel strong, energetic, and flexible, you won’t have the stamina to succeed. High performers make exercise, healthy eating, and sleep priorities in their lives. Doing so will help you be your best personally and professionally.”

The healthy, wealthy and wise take time for themselves. In their midst of their dreaming and doing, and their planning and processing, the healthy, wealthy and wise understand the priority of Self-Care. And, they also implement the practice of Self-Care. Understanding that when we cease to care for ourselves, burnout and frustration is around the corner, the wise care for and nurture themselves in a diversity of ways.

Everything from regular sleep to nutrition, to exercise to meditation, to affirmations to visualization, to journaling and to time with quality people, wise people take the time they need to care for themselves.

People with a high level of impact understand inherently that a simple daily investment in self-care is perhaps the smartest investment we can make because it keeps us energized, and energy leads to productivity. The highest impact investments are in the physical realm, the mental and emotional realm, and the spiritual realm.

Nourish in order to flourish:

• W. Clement Stone: “You are a product of your environment, so choose the environment that will best develop you towards your objective. Analyze your life in terms of your environment. Are the things around you helping you towards success – or are they holding you back?”
• Muhammad Ali: “It’s not the mountains ahead that wear you out, it’s the pebble in your shoe.”
• Warren Buffett: “The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.”

Loving yourself is not vanity, it is sanity!

Here is how I have learned to nourish in order to flourish. The list below provides us with 17 Daily Practices for Self-Care.

Treat this, not as a “to-do” list in order to accomplish them all, but as a menu of options.

Try each one at some point. Stick closely to the 5 or 10 that work best for you.

Recharge with Self-Care – 17 Daily Practices:

It is all about the sporting buzz-phrase of the day – “the aggregation of marginal gains”, or “the drive to perfect every controllable detail in search of optimal performance”.

John Wooden said this: “Races are won by a fraction of a second, National Championship games by a single point. That fraction of a second or a single point is the result of relevant details performed along the way”.

It is about being willing to do 100 things 1% better.

Marginal gains: 100 things done 1 per cent better to deliver incremental and cumulative competitive advantage. Marginal gains can be physical, operational, and even psychological, mental, or emotional.

Nourish in order to flourish!