Here I am: 10 Healthy Strategies To Focus On Yourself Now (Part I)

Life has been very chaotic for us all, especially because of the pandemic. New routines had to be established for the entire family in a short time-frame.

The reality is that many of us have been caught up in commitments, work, family, and current goals that have caused you to neglect your self-care and well-being. When you do make the time to care for yourself, feelings of selfishness may arise causing you to feel guilty or even regretful of making time for yourself.

Okay...just to make it clear the mentality that spending time on or with yourself is wasted time is not a healthy mentality to have. If your aim is to obtain high levels of external successes in your life then it is of the up most importance that you understand how to focus on yourself and inner dialog.

How to Focus on Yourself using 10 Healthy Strategies

Listed below are ten strategies that you can implement in your life now to focus on yourself in a healthy manner. Please remember that we have been conditioned as a society to believe that self-care equals selfishness and that's far from the truth. Treat yourself as good as you treat other people!

1. Love Thyself

"Self-love is the best-love". This is the mantra I tell myself on a consistent basis to keep my levels up and in optimal shape. This mind-frame is not just for the attuned folks, since everybody can benefit from participating in self-love activities. So Tee...what is self-love though? Great question! It means assessing and evaluating yourself in a healthy manner, using positive self-talk while minimizing the negative internal dialog.

As an entrepreneur, my ability to identify my skills and minimize my weaknesses is an asset that has allowed me to assess my skills objectively. Now when it comes to emotional intelligence and my emotional well-being...that is a completely different article lol (seriously) but most people understand that the same strategies and skills you use in business cannot be transferred to emotional situations. The reality is you cannot take things too personally, just let it roll off of you and continue on your path. To achieve personal growth is to reach a healthy balance of self-reflection and positive encouragement. It is not stewing in a place of disappointment after a mistake is made.

2. New Things? Try Them, Try Them If You May, I Say!

We are multi-dimensional beings that have sides to us that are known and unknown to others around us. With that being said, if you are only going to your job then coming back home it's obvious that you may be on auto-pilot and may not have realized that you are living like you're stuck in the movie Groundhog's Day featuring Bill Murray.

Now, we want to step outside of your one-dimensional being and pull out your true self. Let's state facts... you are not just an employee for a company. You do have identities outside of the work that pays your bills. Some individuals forget that and it's a shame because you are forgetting to recognize different aspects of yourself. While we are passionate about our work (especially if the work means a lot to you and aligns with your vision, morals and values). However, it's essential to incorporate new things into your life. So... what are the benefits of opening up myself to new experiences? Well, you'll be fostering your creativity while defining other sides of yourself and personality. This helps to improve your quality of life and gain more satisfaction journey here on this Earth.

Now how does one introduce themselves to trying new things such a taking up a new hobby. This is not the time to be thinking out your work and how you could try new things there. We are trying to get away from that comfort zone of yours and think outside of the box.

Maybe you'd like to learn how to use a sewing machine, learn how to drive, or take up spoken word and written poetry. Choose a hobby that you see longevity in -- remember to stay focused on the journey of learning and development by not concerning yourself with its financial gains.

3. Cherish Time & Loved Ones

The quality of our lives is dependent on who we are around, what environments we are in, and where we choose to spend our time. More often then we'd like to admit to ourselves we tend to make time for our loved ones when we are laser-focused on achieving your goals, increasing your wealth or increase your likeability. In pursuit of chasing after our goals we tend to push aside the ones that are nearest and dearest to us. To make matters worse, it's even easier to for us to do this to our immediate family members because we feel as though the harder we focus on obtain success for the family the faster you'll be able to provide for them and cover more than their basic needs.

Truth be told this is not a wise trade-off. Growing up as a child to an entrepreneur was rough. I barely got to know that parent during my childhood because they were always outside of the house working and tending to their business and other responsibilities. They missed school events, parent/teacher interviews, birthday celebrations, dance performances... you name it, they missed it. Now as a mother to a child I make sure to attend all events, meetings, birthday parties and school performances to let my child see me physically present in his life. You have to make time for your loved ones now no matter how far you've come in your career or business. Time is passing us by regardless...so it's a better choice to spend it on the ones you value the most in life because you won't regret the time you spent working on your way of of this world.

4. Health is Wealth

Be it your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, or financial health it's key to have near optimal levels in all areas of your life. Some people push their bodies to the limits by eating poorly or going without proper sleep. In the short-term you might see a tiny payoff but in the long-term you are setting yourself up for disaster to strike. The key to great health is consistency using sustainable behaviours. If you neglect to take care of your body then it will neglect to take care of and support you. Wise people know that nourishing the body now will stave off burnout and fatigue later, since they know there are no such thing as shortcuts.

Step One: The biggest impact you can have on your health is the quality of sleep you are getting daily. So yes...put yourself on a sleep schedule to help your body repair itself and recharge your brain. Seven to eight hours of solid sleep is what you should be aiming for daily, you'll need more if you have a higher levels of activity that are more demanding on the body.

You may have a physically demanding job that wears you out already but for the majority of people that is not the case. This leaves room for working out and physically training your body. Notice that I didn't use the word "exercise" since many people tend to pair the term with weight lifting or intense cardio. Although both options are great they are not the only options to choose when getting to shape. There is a whole plethora of activities to choose from just pick one that you enjoy the most and do that daily ( note: don't go overboard with your workouts or else you'll end up injuring yourself and that's the last thing you need on your plate).

Speaking of plates, a healthy lifestyle cannot happen with eating nutritious food. I'm not here to tell you what your diet should be but keep your level of physical activity and dietary preferences in mind. Shop on the outside isles of the grocery store to shop fresh and minimize your purchase of processed/packaged foods.

Remember to follow up your meals with hydrating fluids such as water or unsweetened coconut water. Most adults are not consuming the 6-8 tall glasses of water daily so this is your sign to drink more!

5. Develop Your Self-Esteem

We began discussing what it means to love thyself while learning to focus on you, however, there's another term that also comes to mind and that's: self-esteem. Your overall happiness is dependent on how good you feel about yourself and the direction your life is heading in. This spills over to all the other areas of your life thus filling you with joy and fulfillment. When people see you radiating with positive vibes they too get positively charged up when they come in contact with you.

Focusing on the negative is easy to do if you're the type to look at things from a pessimistic viewpoint. However the key to success is having on optimistic viewpoint and focusing on the positive. You can reflect on the milestones, accomplishments or awards that you have received from work, recreational activities or through community involvement to make gains in your journey to higher self-esteem. A gentle reminder is that you are also worth more than your accomplishments, titles, awards and/or money. You have internal value that is not measured with materialism. Once you realize your internal value then add tax to your worth in order to maintain high levels of self-esteem.

Stay tuned for part II of this article...

-Thank you for reading

- Articulate Tee