Taking Care of Yourself so that You Can Care for Others
Before I even retired and moved to live across from my mom to take care of her for the rest of her life, I determined to spend my first few awake hours for myself. I knew I would need this time to strengthen me in order to have a care-giving ministry.
The first thing I did was to read two online devotionals called Daily Treasure by Sharon Betters, and Encouragement for Today by Proverbs 31 ministry. Then I read in Psalms 1-72 using Proverbs 31 first 5 app. I am soon going to be reading Psalms 73-150 when the app starts that series mid-April.
Beginning on January 1, 2019 I started reading in six 365 day devotionals on a specific word: thankful, joyful, hope, peace, rest and love. Then I would chose one verse out of these books to Bible Journal. I really believe that God is speaking directly to me when He shows me which Scripture to Bible Journal.
I began Bible Journaling about a year ago when I purchased access to Flourish’s Bible Journaling Conference. My neighbor Ruth and I have enjoyed watching the 20 videos over lunch when we get together bi-weekly.
Briefly Bible Journaling is when you draw words from the verse and then write it out in nice lettering; for me, I chose block lettering using different colored pencils, others do fancy script lettering. I like to use different colors to signify specific words: purple for royalty (God, Jesus, Lord); blue for emotion (human, me); green for action (verbs); red for importance (nouns), pink for contrast (adjectives, adverbs); orange for small words (the, as, for, with, and) and black for negatives (but, sin).
Writing goals and building habits using the Living Well Spending Less planner has helped me to accomplish more than I ever thought I would in retirement. Paul and I find using Google Calendar really beneficial in planning the use of our one vehicle.
Another way that I take care of myself is by getting exercise through Jazzercise, Zumba Gold and walking Amber. I am so fortunate that I can walk to the senior center, which is directly behind my mom’s condo. I prefer these classes even more than those I did while living in NJ because they are low impact and geared towards seniors. The nicer weather has helped me to walk Amber more frequently which she absolutely loves.
I am still working at losing weight. I have found this more challenging in retirement, because I have so much more free time. Being accountable to my health coach has helped me to stay true to my goals and given me ideas to change up what I am eating to fool my body as to what it can expect.
I have enjoyed working on my blog and I am starting to create a video series called Help in Achieving An Awesome Retirement (hence SOS Retirement) with Habits, Health, Hobbies, Bible Study and Care-giving.
Thank you for the reminder to take time for ourselves! I have not been a morning person most of my life, but at 54 I am finding that mornings are a great “just for me”time.
Amazing note. I can relate to the self love part very well.
Interesting post! I am always intrigued to learn how others begin their day and find out what they do to prepare themselves mentally and emotionally. Different things work for different people, i guess depending on where they are at in their life, what their role is in their family and various factors. Best of luck to you in your venture of blogging! Like you, I am just beginning my journey in blogging and so far, I’m enjoying it immensely!