Self Care Commitment #1

I feel silly writing about this which suggests to me that it is absolutely something that I need to put into the universe.

My self-care commitments can be broken in to two categories. The first are things that are essential to my physical health and physical well-being, and in some cases to the well-being of my spirit. The second are things that just make me feel good, they are more indulgent. I am reluctant to write about the former because, despite almost ten years of therapy, I still feel a little foolish that I don't have brushing/flossing my teeth down as well as I would like. The latter category is so indulgent to me, that it is not worthy of discussion.

Perhaps I should think about giving up self-depreciation in the near future.....

So taking care of my hands falls into that latter category. My grandmother raised me and I vividly remember watching her slather lotion on her hands and her hands were beautiful. My hands have always been one of my nicer features, so I've always worked at preserving their finer qualities.

Enter motherhood. I remember a moment after Afro Boy came home when I looked at my hands and for the first time in my life they looked weathered. It was depressing. Some time later, the Monkey told me that my hands looked "tired". Ack.

So part of my self-care involves purchasing very nice hand lotions that I love and keeping them all around the house so that I can stop at any moment during the day and put some lovely salve on my apparently hard-working hands. It is a wonderful way of remembering myself and my hands are looking pretty nice for 40 year-old hands that have never had sunscreen on them.

I also added keeping my nails trimmed and filed to my list. It's an easy thing to do while watching television or talking on the phone. It's amazing how much better a nicely groomed hand looks!

Finally, since I'm on bedrest I've actually been polishing my nails. While I regularly treat myself to a pedicure, manicures are a waste of money for me. No matter how diligent I am about applying a protective top-coat, my polish chips after 2-3 days. Chipped nail polish is the ultimate antithesis to the appearance of a well-groomed hand so I generally do not bother. But since I am banned from most house work for the next week, I decided to indulge myself in some tomato red nails. They are in my opinion, quite lovely. Each time I look at them, I feel good and I feel the same little ripple of happiness as I do when I see my orange toe-nail polish. It doesn't change my life overall, but it adds a little bit of joy to my soul....

I guess that's what self-care is all about.