It's important to spend quality time with yourself, to stay true to who you are and what's most important to you. Watch as family physician Gretchen Phillips, MD, explains why taking "me" time is so crucial, and how you can make it happen every day.
One of the things I talk about quite frequently with my patients is that sometimes women who have kids, or who don't have kids but have a busy career, feel like they're getting lost in the shuffle. And it's very important for us to make sure that we stay centered in who we are.
That we stay true to what's important to us. And in order to do that you have to take time for yourself. You don't have to sit and meditate. It doesn't have to be by a babbling brook. You can just sit on your couch, even if it's just reading a book that you've been meaning to read, 20 or 30 minutes a day, have a nice juice spritzer, or if you feel like it, treat yourself to a glass of wine.
But have some time for yourself where you're not worried about everybody else. If you don't take care of yourself, you're not going to be there for everybody else. Having a career and five kids, I am kind of a slave to a schedule, so, what I've done is, schedule my me time to my day, and at eight o'clock every night after my little ones are in bed.
I have 30 minutes of me time or, I'll sit and just be quiet or have a glass of wine, my family knows that that is sacred time, and they're not to interrupt me.
Gretchen Phillips, MD is a board-certified family physician and medical contributor who is available to speak about health care, exercise, nutrition, and other medical topics as they relate to adults, children and adolescents.
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