This is a story about how doing my nails lead to me truly doing self care for myself. Let's be 100% real, having your nails done once or going to a massage once is great but it doesn't address the underlying issues of needing self care. I (like many of you I'm sure) have been programmed to be hustling all day every day. First, I need to be a super mother. 100% engaged with my child and tending to her needs. Secondly, I need to be an amazing partner to my husband. 100% engaged with my husband and tending to his needs. Third, I need to fully on and engaged in building a business. Finally, I need to ensure I am making time for socialization and seeing friends. I know that so many of you are in similar boat. We are supposed to give, give, give, and enjoy that 15 minutes of a hot shower as our "self-care time".

Look, we all know that's bullshit.

Basic tasks and chores alone are not self care.

Now, back to the story about my nails. I noticed I was taking a lot of photos of my hands for the business. So I tried doing my own nails. Which in itself was hilarious. My husband eventually suggest, he do them. So we started doing my nails. Which made me sit down and be still. As many of you know, dry times take forever. If I wasn't still, I would ruin them. So I sat. I didn't check my phone, answer emails, or anything. I sat. I watched a TV show. I did this crazy thing called relaxing.

This lead me to take a whole night off once a week. I didn't clean anything, I didn't stress about work, my kid was hopefully going to stay in bed. I started doing face masks and other things that me feel great about myself. I watched cheesy TV shows and worked on puzzles. I realized that I didn't need to go, go, go all the time. The constant hustle was burning me out. I said no to things that I didn't want to do. Things I normally would have said yes to because it was expected of me. 

This was how I found self care for me. I found that it's OK to slow down. It's ok to say no to things. It's ok to care for myself and put myself first on occasion. So how do you slow down? Do you know it's OK to say NO to things? While you may not want to do your nails, I encourage you to take some time to slow down. To enjoy something for you. To remember that you are an important person too.