Do you hold back how you truly feel? Do you know how you truly feel?
Take this moment to take a deep breath in with me. Drop your shoulders. Relax your jaw, open and stretch your mouth. Now check in with how you are feeling.
Was it easy or difficult to connect to how you are feeling?
So many times you can forget to check in on how you are feeling. Life gets busy, you have a lot of responsibilities and you don’t have time to check in with how you are doing. You get focused on taking care of everyone around you – concerned with how everyone else is doing that you forget about yourself.
Another reason you may hold back how you feel is that it can feel scary. It doesn’t feel safe. You may hold back how you feel because you were not raised to share your feelings or you were raised to be a nice, quiet girl. You don’t want to upset anybody. You don’t want to make anyone feel bad, so you hold back how you feel. The longer you do this, the more likely it will become your normal way of being.
This is something I see in women that love to nurture and take care of others. You know the ones that check-in in on you when you are feeling down. They always remember your birthday and give you the most thoughtful gift. They are always available to help you out. They are great listeners and cheerleaders. They are so great at taking care of everyone else and anticipating how others are feeling – that they forget to check in on how they are feeling. They have big hearts, but eventually, it becomes overwhelming for them.
Over time many of these women start to feel like they are being taken advantage of because they have stopped taking care of themselves.
Are you this woman? Do you have someone in your life that is this woman?
I want to remind you that it is not selfish to take care of yourself. You do not have to be everything to everyone. It is okay to think about what you want, and what you need. You are important. You deserve to take time for yourself.
Let’s take another moment together to take a breath. Close your eyes and tune in to how you feel. Ask yourself what can you do at this moment to take care of yourself. Only you have the answer to this question.
Now give yourself permission to follow through.
“When you say ‘yes’ to others make sure you are not saying ‘no’ to yourself.” Paulo Coelho