We live in a society that often tries to dictate what certain behaviors or practices should look like for each of us. But we’re all unique. We each have our own individual routines, go-to morning rituals that we can’t live without, or our own processes to be our best selves every day.
How we practice self-care is no exception. Making time for self-care in your daily life is non-negotiable when it comes to reaching the highest level possible of contentment, clarity, and personal development. Some people lean on bubble baths, long morning walks, or physical exercise. These common self-care practices usually hone in on our five main senses; sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.
But when you incorporate intuition into your self-care, you elevate an entirely new set of senses- your connection to your inner wisdom, your higher self. These allow you to reach even higher deeper levels of inner peace, clarity, and mindfulness. Your intuitive senses are your ‘sixth senses’ – an entirely different set of senses that fuel the awakening into tuning in to make you more observant and aware of your truest feelings and needs. When you open up to leveraging intuition in your self-care routines, you’ll discover needs and desires you may not have been consciously tuned into or were aware you had.
Uncover Deeper Needs
One of the first steps in awakening your intuition is making a habit of checking in with yourself. Starting out with 10-15 minutes of meditation – or a grounding exercise focusing on stillness – to connect with your inner self allows you to uncover what your soul is conveying, not just what your body needs. While physical needs are important – like sleep, fueling our bodies with quality food, and spending time interacting with people we love – we also need to give space for what our soul is craving, and what our inner self desires needs in order to thrive.
Not only do we uncover a connection to our authentic selves, but our intuition guides us to know what we need to do in order to honor them. Trusting yourself to take the right actions, or take the right steps, or make the right decisions to satisfy your deeper emotional needs is the true power of intuitive self-care.
Maximize the Benefits of Your Normal Self-Care Routine
You don’t need to abandon – or even alter – your personal self-care routines in order to practice intuitive self-care. Infusing your intuition into your already existing rituals just means that they become more powerful in helping you become centered and quieting your analytical mind.
Exercise, while important for our physical bodies, can be even more beneficial when we let it be part of our emotional self-care as well. We can use exercise for a lot more than just burning calories. It can be a powerful way to improve self-confidence, increase mental clarity, and release negative energy. Before you start your exercise routine, ask yourself:
What type of exercise will make me feel the best afterward? Will a cardio-fueled sweat help me feel energized, or will a simple yoga routine help me feel more relaxed?
Am I working out because I want to or because I think I have to? Would rest be better for me today?
Slowing down and asking yourself simple questions before you jump into action is a way to check-in with what you truly desire and put you in a better state of mind to receive the most benefit from your exercise.
Put You First
It’s our innate human nature to want the people around us to be happy. We are instinctively drawn to positivity and joy, so that often affects the actions we take, how we speak, and the interactions we have with others. But there are times when this nature can become problematic for our own emotional health and self-care. When we start making decisions based on how we want others to feel, or how we want them to perceive us, we start to neglect what fuels our own inner peace.
One of the roadblocks I work on with individuals is learning to work with setting aside our ego – our perceived self – rather than against it – to uncover what needs we have that need to be met. Your perceived self is the person that you present to the world – the one you want others to see. This doesn’t mean your ego is a bad or negative thing. It’s a part of you that has probably helped you immensely in your professional and personal life. But the key is learning to recognize when you are making decisions based on what your perceived self is attached to, rather than what you truly want or need.
When we learn to separate our ego from our inner self, we can start making decisions that are more beneficial to our own personal development and ones that elevate our levels of fulfillment and peace.
When you approach your physical and emotional self-care by tapping into your intuition and truly listening to what your entire authentic self needs, you create more powerful and fulfilling rituals that will help you find better mental clarity and peace in everything you do.
I’m dedicated to empowering you to transform your life and lead with purpose, confidence and clarity. If you’re ready to reawaken your innate intuition, let’s talk.