“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”— Rumi
It’s not the face, but the expressions you make. It’s not the voice, but what you say. It’s not exactly how you look in that body, but the things you do with it. You are incredible! So give yourself a chance to be your best. You are worth the effort today!
And remember that there’s nothing selfish about self-care. We can’t give what we don’t have. Enrich your life and you’ll be life-giving to others. Your contribution to the world matters, but you can only transmit genuine positive energy when you’re in a positive place yourself.
Self-care generally includes any intentional actions you take to care for your physical, mental, and emotional health. It seems simple, but maintaining a healthy self-care routine is a challenge for many of us, and it can be especially challenging when life gets busy.
There are three physical aspects of self-care that get talked about a lot:
- Eating right
- Sleeping well
- Exercising regularly
And then there are many intricate mental and emotional aspects of self-care that we often forget about. This is the aspect of self-care I want to touch upon today. Below you will find 18 handpicked quotes from our books and blog archive that I often reference for my own mental and emotional self-care. I hope you find some value in them too…
1. It’s not what you say to everybody else that determines your life. It’s what you whisper to yourself that has the greatest power.
2. Don’t look for others to give you permission to be yourself. You don’t need anyone’s validation to be “good enough” or to have a good day.
3. The best time to be extra kind to yourself is when you don’t feel like it. Because that’s when doing so can make the biggest difference.
4. Be your own experiment. Be your own work of art. Be a work in progress. And be OK with it.
5. Let people around you see the real, imperfect, quirky, weird, beautiful, interesting person YOU are. That is enough today.
6. You can’t base your ideas of success and happiness on other people’s opinions and expectations.
7. Spend a lot more time with those who make you smile and a lot less time with those who you feel pressured to constantly impress. (And remember, you can be kind to people without choosing to be around them all the time.)
8. On the average day, our greatest defense against stress is the ability to choose one thought over another. If you look for reasons to be angry and upset, you’ll find plenty of them. Look instead for reasons to be positive, and see them everywhere.
9. One of the most peaceful and productive mindsets begins the moment you finally find the courage to let go of what you can’t change. (Read “The Power of Now”.)
10. There’s no use going back over what you did or didn’t do in the past, because you were a different person then. Unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you accept that it’s over, you can’t move forward.
11. Most people make themselves unhappy simply by finding it impossible to accept life just as it is presenting itself right now. Don’t be one of them.
12. You don’t know what the future will bring. So your best strategy for living is to make the best and most positive use of the present.
13. When you discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy — something that truly matters to you — care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life. And if you find that you don’t have enough time for what matters, stop doing things that don’t.
14. The quality of your life in the long run directly depends upon how you set and respect your priorities today. (And it’s not selfish to make your happiness a priority.)
15. Whenever the grass looks greener on the other side, stop staring, stop comparing, stop complaining, and start watering the grass you’re standing on.
16. Anyone can hide from problems and suffer longer. Owning up to things, and working through them gradually… that’s what makes you happier sooner rather than later.
17. You can’t lift a thousand pounds all at once. Yet you can easily lift one pound a thousand times. Tiny, repeated efforts will get you there. (Note: Marc and I discuss this further in the Goals & Success chapter of “1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently”.)
18. Sometimes we need to distance ourselves to see things clearly. And sometimes the most important space we can create for ourselves is the short rest we take between two deep breaths.
With self-care on the mind today, I challenge you to let the quotes above sink in, and then join me in completing this short positive to-do list:
- Go for a long walk.
- Indulge in a great conversation.
- Do something you love for 30 minutes.
- Count your blessings.
- Pay close attention to the moment (as often as you can remember to).
- Let go… and just be and breathe (as often as you need to).
