Self-Care? Sounds dirty.

Guess what? Asinine paper has been written and submitted! Now what am I going to cry about?

I've had the rare privilege to watch my lack of self-care slowly being flushed down the toilet this last year. Before the wedding insanity, I'd managed to carve out a piece of time for myself each day so I could read, work out, make crafty stuff, blog, whatever. The only stipulation was that it had to be something I enjoyed and was for no one else but myself. It might sound a little selfish, but I firmly believe that if you don't take the time to care for yourself, how can you care for others when your reserves are kaput?

I'm sure you know many women who have dropped the time for self-care to fit in another page of homework, another chore completed, another task at work, or another person looked after. I always thought I'd be able to stave off the usurpation of my self-care time, but, lo and behold, it's gone...and it left me last fall.

I've noticed with the lack of my self-care time I'm crankier, exhausted, and have a really negative outlook on situations I am lucky to be in. Take, for example, my extreme distaste for some of my graduate courses...C'mon! Wah! I mean, really? Poor me has to go to graduate school and take graduate classes I don't like. Could I be any snottier? Not really. I am lucky and I am blessed. Now just to get that through my thick skull.

I realized that my usually positive personality was struggling to emerge from a carcass that hadn't taken any real self-care time in over a year.

So, this last weekend, I didn't do a page of homework. I read an amazing book (I'll post about it tomorrow!). I cooked some yummy meals for Shug and myself. I spent some much-needed time with friends. I decorated a little for the holidays. I took a nap with Ruby. I bought a treadmill and ran for miles to my favorite songs.

I feel better already.

I want to know, as the hectic craziness of the holidays approaches, what do you do for self-care?