According to this article, poorly maintained vehicles cause thousands of wrecks each year. The bill for accidents resulting from unperformed vehicle maintenance tops $2 billion a year. Even if you’re lucky enough to avoid a crash, putting off maintenance is likely to reduce your car’s life span roughly 50,000 miles.

Okay, clearly I’m not here to discuss my auto maintenance schedule. This analogy seems to paint the best picture of the necessity of self-care. In order to keep my human machine at optimal performance, I began to do some things more regularly. It was also part of the agreement I made with myself when I stepped back into my massage practice – take care of myself so that I can take care of others and practice what I preach! LOL

First of all, I do my best to take two full days off from work each week. My days are primarily Sundays and Mondays and are usually spent near a body of water with my husband and daughter if possible. This helps me reset and recharge my batteries. Providing such a physical/energetic service can be taxing on my body in multiple ways. So, it’s important I stay grounded and get ample sunshine and fresh air.

In addition to the exercise regimen I discussed in my last post, my self-care routine includes massage therapy, flotation therapy, yoga, far infrared sauna with chromotherapy, energy healing, women’s empowerment meet-ups and proper nutritional supplementation.

Massage therapy is the best way to raise my body awareness and it keeps my muscles and joints supple and more relaxed. I receive a 90-minute massage every two weeks from different therapists. If you’re looking to find a new therapist or need a back up, here’s who I see regularly and/or feel comfortable referring you to:

• Haven Richardson
• Robin Lee
• Tara Rigger
• Sheila Johnson
• Jamie Auten
• Kevin Kai
• Debra Samek
• Amber Parrish

Although flotation therapy or ‘floating’ is extremely new to our area, it is something that’s been used by many people across the world including major athletes like Tom Brady. For 90-minutes, I feel weightless in a 10″ pool of water with roughly 1,000 pounds of epsom salt. Intentionally disengaging from everything around me teaches me how to relax. The awareness I achieve in the float pod directly impacts my life outside of the pod. And, well, it’s awesome for magnesium absorption and muscle recovery!

With as much strength training as I’ve been doing lately, yoga has become very important and necessary. I do my best to get in one class per week at a studio or at home with Adrienne. Yoga elongates my muscles, strengthens and lubricates my joints and is a great way to work on balance. This will be especially important when I’m a much older lady than I am today. I suggest you find a yoga studio close to you and check it out. Most of them offer an introductory special for first-time students. If you’ve never done yoga before, you may not want to begin with hot yoga, although I have to admit it’s become one of my favorites. I’ve been to classes at Essential Yoga, Sumits and MyHot; however, there are many studios in town and I have no doubt their instructors are qualified, many I consider friends.

While I don’t do this as often as I’d like, one of my goals is to sit in the far infrared sauna at least twice a month, after my floats. This is a highly specialized dry-heat sauna that brings your body temperature up to the core, penetrating muscles and connective tissue. It detoxifies your system, aids in muscle repair and weight-loss. The sauna I use also has chromotherapy which is said to help with mood and depression.

Sometimes, my body asks me for an energetic reset that a day on the gravel bar can’t cure. When this is the case, I call my friend Michelle Porter and schedule a session. We are and everything around us is made of energy. Our human machine has a whole energetic system that affects many aspects of its performance. Michelle balances my energetic chakras and coaches me, helping me assess areas of my life needing attention or reprioritization.

Another part of my routine for over a year now has been regular meet-ups with a group of women who empower one another. This group was initially started at a retreat I co-hosted in Eureka Springs and we’ve met almost monthly since April 2017. I highly suggest finding a group of ladies (or men) you can meet with regularly and lift one another up, share laughs and confide in one another. Having a safe place to be completely authentic and vulnerable is so important. If you’re interested in putting together a small private retreat to kickstart your own, let me know.

Proper nutrition is so important and when I’m on the go, sometimes it’s hard to eat well all the time. I’ll dive deeper into this subject next time because it will be much longer than a paragraph. 🙂

Clearly not everyone has a time or financial budget to accommodate all of this, however, there are MULTIPLE ways to incorporate alternate methods that will be just as effective. If you need help coming up with a self-care plan that fits within your time and budget, please let me know and I’d be happy to make recommendations for you!

Talk to you soon!