My name's Sandhya,
And I'd love to know,
What do you do for self-care?
Is it a foreign question to you?
Is it a completely new thing for you?
Or have you been practicing it for some time?
I have lots of people I teach self-care for.
I've taught self-care for many,
Many years.
And lots of people say to me,
I don't have the time for self-care.
But it's not about taking lots of time out for self-care.
It might be do an hour and a half yoga meditation practice.
But it might be just taking a moment to pause,
To be still,
And to take some breaths in and out.
That might be a self-care act for you.
A self-care act for you might be going to bed earlier than you normally do.
To not stay watching the TV,
Because you want to finish off a film,
But yet you're then going to be tired in the morning.
That can be an act of self-care.
An act of self-care can be preparing your dinner for later,
So you've got lovely,
Fresh food sorted for you.
I've particularly found that when I take time out for self-care,
And for me in an ideal world,
That'd be an hour out in the afternoon.
I'm actually not doing it at the moment,
Not for an hour.
But for an hour out in the afternoon to just relax,
Do actually whatever I want to do.
It might be meditate.
It might be listen to a podcast.
It might be just watching something on Netflix,
Just to sit there and do nothing.
I found that when I sit there and do nothing,
I've got so much more energy to continue with the day.
I'll go in the morning,
And then in the afternoon,
Have a bit of rest.
I've got children,
So I have to pick them up at three o'clock.
I'll be working in the morning,
Have that hour's rest.
When I found that I did that,
I had so much more energy to do things later for the children,
For the family,
And for myself as well.
So we'll be here together,
And we'll be practicing an act of self-care.
And today's act of self-care is very simple,
And they're all very simple,
But it's just about taking some time out.
So join me for this act of self-care,
Which is our challenge of the day,
Which is maybe take your glasses off if you're wearing glasses.
To bring your hands together,
Rub your hands to create warmth.
And when you feel warmth in your hands,
Place your hands over your eyes,
Rest your fingers in your forehead,
And just allow your forehead to rest forward slightly.
Take a deep breath in,
And away.
Deep breath in,
And away.
And once more,
Deep breath in,
And away.
And then gently releasing your hands.
So this is your self-care challenge of the day.
Maybe every hour,
Set yourself a timer where you're going to bring your hands together,
Rub to create heat,
Place them over the eyes,
And take some deep breaths.
As we place our fingertips over the forehead,
This creates a flow of energy up into the head area.
Really good for you if you suffer at all with anxiety or stress.
When we're in a state of anxiety or stress,
The blood goes to our limbs,
Our hands,
Our arms,
Our legs,
Our feet.
Because historically,
We needed to run away from that scary tiger.
So all the blood's going to those parts of the body.
So it's taken away often from our brain.
So when we place our hands on the head,
Even like this,
If you're just worrying,
You know,
Somebody places their hand over their forehead,
It's getting that blood flow going.
You can do a similar one as well.
So you've got,
It's good again to brush the hands together,
It's just creating an energy flow through the hands.
You have one hand on your forehead,
And then one hand at the back of the head,
Just where it meets the neck,
So the hair meets the neck,
So your thumb would be there,
And the rest of the hands are resting where the hair would be,
If you have hair.
And then from there,
You can take three deep breaths in and out.
In and out.
And in and out.
And if you have the ability to,
You can stay here for up to three minutes,
Normally takes about three minutes or so to get the blood flowing to your head.
And you'll begin to tune in and feel maybe pauses in your hands once that blood flow is moving back to the head area as well.
And the more you practice,
The more you'll tune into it as well.
Thank you so much for being here with me.
I look forward to see you tomorrow for more self-care.
This is Sandhya,
See you again.
