Day One - Why self care?

In seminary they kept repeating "self care, self care, self care."  Our professors were trying to drill into us the need to take care of ourselves in order to sustain ourselves in this work and not burn out.  I heard it, but years later it's still sinking in.

If you are an aspiring or practicing clergy person and are dubious about the need for self-care I can only recommend Barbara Brown Taylor's excellent book "Leaving Church."  I read it a few years ago but it is still sinking in.  I do get credit for reading it, though.

Two years ago my spiritual director said, "Tell me about your day off."  I said, "Well, that's the day when I plan menus, buy groceries, do laundry and, if I have the energy, clean my house."  She shook her head and said, "That's not a day off!"  She suggested that I start observing a sabbath day of rest.

Being me, I read books on it first.  Abraham Heschel's is a classic for good reason.  Then I planned it out.  In the days leading up to my sabbath I did all those chores, one or two per day, so they'd all be done when the sun went down on Thursday night (my sabbath eve).

My first sabbath day I took three naps.  Tired?  You think?

Though I get points for having a spiritual director (too few of us do that) and for observing a sabbath (too few of us do that, even though even God does it according to Genesis), I still work too hard and too much.  I usually don't get enough sleep, often fail to eat healthy foods, and regularly find myself too tired and/or busy to exercise.

Confession:  This was my first full day off (complete with required introvert alone time) in three weeks.  That is NOT self care.   I know better than that.

So in order to underline the importance of all this for myself, I decided to start this blog in order to

1. track my own quest to practice good self-care AND 
2. to record what happens when I do what my seminary professors told me to do.  

And yes, I see the irony of working on resting.  Got it.

Day One:

• After a nice night out last night I slept nine hours.  
• Woke and made myself breakfast in bed (awesome self-care practice I highly recommend).  Tea, hot wholegrain cereal.
• Had lunch with my best friend (another good practice -we all need face time with friends).  Spinach salad with goat cheese.  Yum.
• Came home, did some online shopping but didn't buy anything (should do "screen-free" days on days off like awesome colleague does).
• Laid down to take a nap, thinking, "I never nap more than 30 minutes."  Woke up 1.5 hours later.  Felt odd.  Took a bath.
• My son came home with friend - I ordered out for pizza for them as didn't feel like cooking. Another salad for me.  Also fruit.  Glass of red wine (anti-cancer), dark chocolate (ditto), funny movie on tv.

Assessment:  All in all, a good self care day.  No exercise but otherwise good.  A solid B+.
Appraisal:  Feel less exhausted.