Four Self-Care Myths That Keep Busy Humans Stressed

Welcome back to Stress Busters for Wildly Busy Humans. If you're ready to release your stress and reclaim your joy in life, you're in the right place. I'm your host, Viviannne Winters Israel. Let's get to it.

This is episode three: True Self Care for Busy Humans. The Four Myths Holding You Back. Greetings, wildly busy humans. In this episode, I want to address some common misconceptions and objections to practicing self-care. Four of them. I already told you that, right? Number one, I've tried meditation. It takes a long time, and I couldn't even tell if I was doing it right. Myth two, I don't have time for such indulgences, and this would be coming from assuming that self care is really some manner of me time. Myth three, maybe using a different time management tool would reduce my stress. Myth

four, self care activities are selfish. That time is better spent with my family, toward my business, working to have potential advancement in my job, maybe more pay, keeping my job. Well, full disclosure, I used to have almost all of those thoughts about self care until I learned I was wrong. Allow me to share with you some of what I've learned. Myth one: I've tried meditation. It takes a long time, and I couldn't tell if I was doing it right. Meditative self-care can be simple and fast across the 20-plus years since I discovered for myself the power of meditative practices, I've

explored many different types and methods. Then, when I returned to work after my long cancer makeover, I did not have the time or the energy to practice long form, 30-plus minute methods or 20-plus minute methods with pretzel-like body positions at the end of a workday. So my meditative exploration parameters shifted, and guess what? There are short form practices, less than 30 minutes that are powerful. Some not only don't involve pretzel-like body positions; they don't require any kind of physical movement. And my wildly busy humans, there are even a few that, once learned, take only two

minutes to perform, two minutes, and those two-minute methods, once you've been practicing them regularly, can provide results in even less time. One can even happen in around 20 seconds. How's that for a stress-busting record? And no pretzel-like body positions are required. Myth one, busted. Myth two, the I don't have time for such indulgences, assuming that self-care means some kind of me time. I call this me time versus true self care. I've come to refer to my chosen self care tools, my favorite methods, as true self care. Why? Because over the last several years, the term self care

has too often been equated with me time, used interchangeably. So I feel the distinction is necessary. Me time encompasses a long bubble bath, treating yourself to a spa treatment, a mani-pedi, hanging out in your man cave or your she shed, and don't get me wrong. Me time is great. I interpret me time as something that elevates your day, but is not true self care. My focus is practices which enhance your everyday life experience cumulatively, and to elevate awareness that there are shorter, powerful methods for humans with wildly busy schedules. I must also tell you that at least one of

the longer HoloSync programs, the proprietary audio technology. Can even empower your journey through life crises with more ease. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but definitely with more ease. Even help you through those first raw moments of a crisis. How can I say this? As I experienced that myself, as I described in my personal self-care journey in episode one. Now, to the more direct response regarding not having time to indulge in self-care, that brings us to the productivity paradox: why slowing down actually helps you accomplish more. We modern humans spend almost, if not the

entirety, of our waking hours in our head. You may say, "Well, of course we do. We're thinking beings, and that is true, but we are not machines. Our mind needs requires breaks, respites, just as our body does. A break of simply sitting in a lounge or some other location, perching somewhere while you read an article or scroll through your phone is not mentally restorative. We're still in our heads, to explain being in your head, you're thinking.

Whenever you're up here, you're thinking, and when you're thinking, the mind can spin wildly, wind what-if scenarios, freak out, or hop in and out of a series of mental rabbit holes, all of which contribute to stress. We need to reduce the unnecessary noise, the mental wheel spinning, because it negatively affects your mental focus, and that mental over processing actually steals precious minutes from your day every day, without your even realizing it, which again adds to your already present stress. This needed slowdown can happen even with the very short form self care methods that

reduce stress and bring clarity and focus to your tasks and activities. When practice regular. will yield confounding results. Nice, yes. As your mind and body become accustomed to experiencing the practice regularly, tucked into little potential pockets or slivers of time during your day, your results will occur faster and go deeper, and can even result in a refresh of your physical energy. Key point: regular practice of a short-form meditative method is true self-care. Myth two, busted. Moving on to myth three. Time management tools as a loan tactic can be the effort to reduce stress. No,

traditional time management methods can fail you as lone tactics, as that isn't going to be sustainable for the long term. They focus on direct productivity, missing a fundamental truth. Managing your time is not just about schedules and to-do lists. It's about energy and presence. Furthermore, caregiving, parenting, and teaching are as much, if not more, about heart, inspiration, and connection than just information being taught or shared. But why is this important? An important problem to solve now, first, to stave off growing frustration as traditional planning tools keep failing you as a

solo tactic. Two, prevent potential feelings of professional and/or personal inadequacy, despite how hard you're working. Three, halt the invisible theft of your precious time across each day. And fourth, wasting precious planning time, struggling with ineffective tactics without also having a secret weapon hack, the productivity paradox in your toolkit. I realize you may not be in a position to control the magnitude of your workload nor deadlines. There are, however, areas you can exercise control. Those areas are the very failure points of traditional time management tools. Managing your

energy and presence. Here's what works. Don't rely solely on time management tools as the tactic. You need a strategy. Add the secret weapon hack of the productivity paradox by adopting a short-term true self-practice. Incorporating the tool results in a sustainable whole life strategy. Why does this self-care plus time management strategy work when time management alone won't, because of the awesome bonus side effect of the productivity paradox. Even with the shortest form meditative practices, after you've been in practice, meaning practicing regularly for a few to several weeks, you

will begin to experience the sensation that you seem to have more time. Why? You are no longer wasting so much time in mental spin cycles. You are experiencing the recapturing of time that was lost during mental mind spinning and over processing, your regular practice of true self care is providing the restorative pause that your mind needs on a regular basis. Needs, but has too long been without. Key point: managing your energy and presence is true self care. Myth three, busted big time, right? Now, myth four: self care practices are selfish. That time is better spent towards my

family, my business, potential advancement in my job, and maybe even a raise, keeping my job. I'm going to craft for you a real-world illustration to prove true self-care is not selfish. The example comes from something we probably all heard, or at least heard discussed: the flight attendants' presentation on the proper use of oxygen masks during an in-flight emergency. How often have we really heard, actually listened, when the attendants review and demonstrate Those instructions. They tell us to put our own maxogen maxogen oxygen mask on first, then assist our child or elderly family

member or co-passenger. Well, back when I was a young mom and traveling with my very young daughter, I absolutely balked at those instructions, saying to myself, "I'm taking care of my daughter first. Thank you very much. But if I or you took that action, it would have caused both parties precious breathing time we didn't have. Imagine if those masks did drop for real. People are gonna be scared.

A wide range of emotions are going to develop. If you're traveling with your child, regardless of how much your child trusts you, being children, being more sensual than adults, that flash onset of fear from you plus all of those other passengers is going to run through their mind and body like an invisible shockwave. They'll be terrified, probably inconsolable, and fight against your putting their mask on, costing both of you precious breathing time you didn't have. Who will help your child if you pass out struggling with them before securing their mask. Who will be there for your child

if you manage to get their mask on, but you pass out before securing yours? What is the likelihood of your child keeping that mask on when they their fear escalates once you pass out and become unresponsive to them. How scary is all that? Now, frightened adults-they're more formidable than children, and you won't know how any one of them is going to react. Until they react, some will freeze in place. Some will try to flee, even though there's nowhere to go but out of the plane. Some will fight, fight anyone, fight everyone because of their panic response, and some will keep it together.

In that scenario, wrestling with any frightened person runs the clock out for both involved. Because if that takes too long, everyone loses. It's vital, vital that you put your mask on first, quickly, then help your child or elderly family member. There is your dramatic illustration and proof that taking true self-care of yourself first is not selfish. Do you still feel you require permission to devote time to self-care? If you do, if the guilt is strong in you, let me remind you: I'm a registered nurse. I've got you covered with nurses' orders, your permission slip to practice self-care, and

it has unlimited refills. Download your copy of nurse's orders, print it out, write in your name at the top of the permission slip. I've already signed it. Keep it in your purse or wallet, so you can remind yourself whenever necessary, you have permission, nurse's orders, to practice self-care. You deserve this, and your loved ones deserve that you do this. That's all for now. Until next time.