Prioritizing Self-Care and Personal Growth [REWIND]

 In the hustle of juggling multiple responsibilities, it's easy to forget to prioritize yourself.  In this week's episode, I share my journey of balancing different roles and the strategies I've implemented to prioritize self-care and personal growth. From meditation, journaling, and setting goals to practicing gratitude and healthy eating, I explore a wide range of self-care practices that you can incorporate into your routine to refill your self-care bank account. So, grab a cup of tea and get ready to delve deep into the realm of self-care with me in the Tea Tasting Room!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Prioritizing Self-Care
• 9:27 Prioritizing Self-Care and Personal Growth
• 18:48 Self-Care Tips

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Tea with Tanya. I'm your host, tanya Ambrose, an average millennial navigating life as a maternal health professional, non-profit founder and wet student. Join me in the tea tasting room where we spill the tea and find in balance and promoting positive living while doing it all.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Hey friend, welcome back to another episode of Tea with Tanya. In this episode, it's another re-release, where we're talking about the importance of prioritizing self-care. Especially as we approach the holiday season, it's very important that you remember how important it is to take care of yourself, when to know when your social battery is running out, when to know that you know what you need to pour into your self-care bank account. In this episode, I'm sharing some tips and ideas on how to take time for yourself and how you can start prioritizing your self-care and refill your self-care bank account. Again, you can do this during the holiday season and even after. The important thing is that you will continue to keep on depositing into your self-care bank account, because if you don't take care of yourself, then you won't be operating at your highest frequency when dealing with others. So pour into yourself and prioritize self-care. So let's take a listen to this episode. Hey everyone, it's your girl, tanya, and you're listening to the Tea with Tanya podcast where we talk all things self-love, wellness, personal development with drops of public health stories.

Speaker 2: 1:35

Now, guys, before we get into today's episode, I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for all of you who listened to season one, episode one. You know you guys exceeded any expectations that I may have had. You guys left your reviews, you guys DMed me on Instagram, sent me messages on WhatsApp. Like you know, you had some thought, had some paragraphs of reviews or suggestions and so many different things, and I want to thank you guys really and surely, for doing that. You guys have given me the boost to continue this podcasting journey and I could not have felt that way without you guys. Feedback, to be honest. So I can't say thank you enough. But, of course, make sure you like, review, subscribe all these different things, because you know you're going to help me, especially if you're listening to my podcast on Apple podcast or iTunes. Please, please, guys, be sure to rate me, give me that five star, leave a comment. So that's going to help to boost your girl in this podcast world. Okay, so I just want to say again thank you, thank you, thank you, guys. Now let's see what's brewing in the tea tasting room.

Speaker 2: 2:35

Okay, so today I want to talk about self-care and, of course, I want to give you some ideas or tips on how you can prioritize yourself and practice self-care. Now, guys, you know, of course, when we think about self-care. It can mean so many different things. To be honest with you, and for me it's just about taking care of myself so that I can have enough fuel to pump into others or have enough in my self-care account that I can be putted into somebody else.

Speaker 2: 3:02

But of course, I wouldn't be me if I didn't do a little research or digging to find a meaning of what self-care means, and this is one that I found that you know, in a sense I kind of resonated with, and it says self care means taking care of yourself so that you can be healthy, you can be well, you can do your job, you can help and care for others and you can do all things you need to and want to accomplish in a day. I want to tell you, guys, when I decided to really and truly take my self-care seriously. For me and I can be honest, I'm a bit embarrassed to even say this, but you know I can be honest that's why we're here in the Tea Tasting Room. It's again, social media has a lot of influence.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Thank you for joining me for another episode of Tea with Tanya. If you like this episode, be sure to share it with a friend. Don't forget to follow on Instagram at teawithtanyacom we show you self-care till we be tea talk, newsletter and, of course, my name is Gretel, I'm Apple, I'm Spotify and subscribe wherever you are. See you next time.

Speaker 2: 4:05

All these apps are actually part of self-care, but for me, because my brain can think a thousand things in five to ten seconds. So let me tell you when I decided to really and truly take Serb case seriously and whatever it is, I had to. So, you know, I went to this new dentist. This is like a year and a half, two years. This is how far back I'm going, guys. And you know I had a new dentist, had, you know, new dental insurance and went to the dentist and goes when you're seeing a new dentist, they got around the x-ray and check your gums and do all these things and I think it was the probably the dental hygienist that was performing the tests and these different things and at the end, her and then my dentist. At the time, you know they came in and they were like you know you have to. Well, of course, you know you got to do some extractions. You got to get implants, bridge crown Look, I had. Basically, I'm building a freaking new mouth. If you want to say that, you know what I mean, I'm probably over exaggeration, but not by much. Yes, I was like wow, you know, she said that. You know some parts of my mouth. My gum is really good. The other parts, you know. I got to get treated because you know that could be science for early period dental disease. I think that's what it was. I'm not saying the wrong thing, but I'm sitting in the chair and I'm saying, wow, tiny, here you are talking about. You know your idea of what self care really truly was at the time and your mouth is over here, falling apart, like that's legit what I said to myself, word for it. I'm like your mouth is legit, falling apart. And here you are. You got to get it together and it was in that moment Like you know what, if I'm going to actually say I'm going to take care of myself, my oral health is also part of me taking care of myself. Right, I'm going to see my OBGYN is me taking care of myself. Going to see my primary care physician and at an instant that I had with him was, you know, when you go to the doctor, you know you do your different blood work and everything, and he's telling me all your cholesterol is on the borderline of you being too high and I was like, wow, you know, and the true Caribbean or antigenomy? I was like, wow, you know what I forgot from me, guys. I love me some eggs. You know, here from the Caribbean, they're like you know, I'll go. You know, just stop Right away. My sister's like you know, you need to stop eating eggs. I'm like girl, you know, I got to have my three, four eggs a day. So you know, I mean, granted, I'll tell you this right now, guys, eating a lot of eggs is not the only reason as to why your cholesterol can get high. I'm not going to get into that today, but I'm telling you right now that's the only way to get your cholesterol higher. There's so many other foods that we eat, but again, not today. And in that moment, again in that cheer, I was like wow, ty, here you are. You need to get stuck up.

Speaker 2: 6:32

Your health You're talking about, your idea of self care was on the surface, but look at your, your borderline for having high cholesterol and some other thing on. You know, your mouth is falling apart, like get it together. And that was when I decided I'm like you know what I really need to get my life together and really truly take myself seriously, in addition to the, you know, waxing, getting my hair done, treating myself to a nice meal and these different things. I had to go beneath the surface and make sure that my physical health as far as my, you know, like my physical, my oral and these different things were intact. I even started like my spiritual journey, because you know, I go up in the church, but I started tapping into that even more. And then, of course, my mental health, because, you know, mental health really and truly is important.

Speaker 2: 7:16

And I know something when we talk about self care, we tend, or I tend, for the time I was like, you know, my mental health wasn't really on my radar. You know, I made a brief step, or the bold step, to start therapy, you know, last year, and let me tell you it's one of my greatest decisions that I ever made. I'm learning to become a better person. So let me tell you, my therapy sessions now are considered part of my self care. So every Friday at 6pm I'm going to be in that session, you know, taking care of myself. That's the one day of the week when I'm really and truly diving into my mental health in that capacity. Of course, you know I'm doing other things in the day.

Speaker 2: 7:51

So I remember a question that my therapist asked me one time and it was like you know how do you know when you need self care? What are your morning signs? Let me tell you, guys, for me I'm sure some of you can relate to this when I'm really sorry, because let me tell you, when I'm, you know like, do you get snappy? Are you easily frustrated? That's me when I'm really like burnt out and that's like on the borderline, or that's me being burnt out, I'm tired, or I start getting like flu, likes and thumbs. It's not really the flu, but you know you're so exhausted, you know your body's sad feeling, fatigue. You're probably having a little sniffers, because you know that's for me, that's when I can tell well, it's time for you to go take a nap. It's time for you to take a shower, go in the bed and not do anything that has to do with you thinking or anything that's relaxing me to book or just watch TV or just go to sleep.

Speaker 2: 8:36

Another question is what type of care do you need? Do you need a nap? Do you need to eat these different things? These are two questions that you know I was asked and I keep making sure I try to answer on a day to day basis. You know what I mean. So, guys, this is after making sure that when we think about surf care, in addition to the surface things that we think surf care is, we got to dig deep and make sure that you know we're taking care of physical health as women, women's health, you know, making sure that everything is right when it comes to our body and a whole, because I feel like, for me, the more I'm able to take it myself is, the more I'm able to be in tune with my body. So if something feels out of work or doesn't feel right, I can say, oh, you know what? This is strange. Let me go see my doctor, let me see what's going on to prevent something serious from happening. That's how I look at it, or think of it.

Speaker 2: 9:27

But, um, guys, I want to talk about things you can do to start prioritizing yourself. What I'm going to list now is some of the things that I do. You may not do everything, but these are what have been working for me. And, guys, let me tell you I was the kind of person that I was going to school full time. I was working two jobs. You know I was leaving from my day job, getting home which my community is like almost two hours, and so by the time I get home, it's just enough time for me to shower, eat, take a nap before going to my night job. So I was just. It's like a revolving door for me, but the last couple of weeks I've had the luxury of just coming home from one job, being able to center myself and do some of the things that I was doing in the past, but had to fill up the rocket because you know what I am human. But anyhow, let's get into it. So here's some things you can start to do to prioritize yourself.

Speaker 2: 10:12

You know you can meditate. That's something that I really enjoy doing. You know I do it sometimes in the morning, and what? Night? Not that I'm able to have more free time where I don't have to go to a night job like that. I can get up in the morning and spend, let's say, five minutes also meditating.

Speaker 2: 10:26

And meditation can be different for everyone. You know, for me it's spending time with the world, like I'm reading a scripture. Let me tell you that the Bible app perfect. You can spend five minutes on the Bible app. Look at me shutting them out, but you know, because they have this new feature where you can do your story. You have a prayer, you have someone basically explaining the scripture for the day. You read a passage you know so that in a sense can be five minutes. So that's what I do. Sometimes I just find a scripture that if I'm in a particular book of the Bible, that's what I do, you know.

Speaker 2: 10:57

So, when I'm getting up. So the first thing I do when I get up, let me, let me brush up before my meditation. You know I'm getting up and I'm taking some deep breaths, thanking the Creator for a new day, for the activity of my limbs, for health, for strength to be able to breathe in and out. That's what I do. And then I get into my meditation, which I get into the world. Or sometimes I'm listening to some gospel music, which one of my favorite songs that I'm listening to every morning I'm thinking it's overkill. Right now it's by Israel Horton. It's called To Worship you Relive. That's my song. Dream and Meditation. What else do I do? I journal, so you can journal.

Speaker 2: 11:30

I do like journaling. You know, I kind of move the way from journal in the morning to journaling at night now, because I feel like I'll have more stuff for me to talk about. What if I do journaling in the morning. I'm just writing down. You know all three things that I would like to happen. I would make my day go good if that makes sense. So you can do gratitude journaling. You know what are you grateful for, like. Make it like a brain dump Again. You can do it in the morning, you can do it at night. I have not been doing it at night because it gives me more time to brain dump and write a lot. But I do try to write. You know at least three to five things that I'm grateful for in the morning and three to five things that would make the day go by smoothly. They're obviously realistic things.

Speaker 2: 12:11

Even having a healthy meal for me, because my appetite sometimes, I think, is on existence, I tend to make sure that I'm eating right, having a healthy meal. You know I haven't really had junk food. Let's just say I don't consider Chick-fil-A junk food, but I haven't really had like, you know, like McDonough or Burger King. I haven't had like junk food like that. You know why I dabbling some or nibble on some Chick-fil-A in a while. And of course I got to have my pizza every week. That's like my meal Every Friday or whatever day I feel like having it, I'm going to have a pizza. That's one of my favorite foods, so pizza is going to be eaten every week and you know that's my treat. That's part of my self care, but definitely I try to have a healthy meal or try to make sure I'm meat-prepping. That's a big thing. I make sure I'm eating three square meals a day because, again, like I said, my appetite is non-existent. That's part of my self-care is making sure that I'm eating healthy, making sure that I'm eating meals in a day to keep me that nutritional energy that I need.

Speaker 2: 13:06

What else do I do? You know I do what your goals. You know I like to write. If I don't write something on paper, I feel like it's not going to come out and I feel like sometimes to me I haven't been doing good at writing my goals. It's all in my head and then you know, when it gets in your head, it's stuck in the mix up. It's like, okay, what goal is this for? So really, truly try to practice writing your goals out, because it tends to bring clarity and up more times you always accomplish your goal when you write things out. Another thing that I like to do because, guys, you'll come to find out, which I'm probably telling you guys now.

Speaker 2: 13:36

The bathroom is one of my favorite place in my house or just anywhere, because I tend to talk to myself in the mirror, and that's something you guys should do when it comes to self-care Looking at mirror, affirm yourself, you know, just repeat some affirmations and look yourself in the eye and say you know, I am beautiful, I am smart. You know these different types of affirmations and that's something that I do anytime I pass the mirror, it doesn't matter even if I'm not even at work and I'm using the bathroom. Anytime I see a mirror, I leave repeating one or two affirmations to myself. You know, because as you start saying things to yourself, you start believing it and things start becoming what you see.

Speaker 2: 14:13

I do read. I try to read at least 15 pages of a book that I'm reading per night because I think it makes me or helps me to finish a book faster. You know, reading. My library school's teacher, mac, in high school, said reading is fundamental and it broadens your horizon. And for some reason, that reading broadens your horizon. That phrase has stuck with me ever since. I don't know why. I guess for whatever reason. But read, maybe learn a skill, whatever it is. You know we're all in quarantine to some extent. You know you can learn to bake. You can only do something, you know. Whatever else, I want to tell you guys Turn off social media.

Speaker 2: 14:46

No, I haven't been able to do that, I'm gonna be honest. But what I've been doing the last few weeks well, at least two weeks now, I've been limiting my time on social media. So I put like a timer of how long I should be on each app and let me tell you guys, my screen time went down drastically. Sometimes I found myself I'm not gonna lie, I have basically my tool supposed to have tools on Instagram and sometimes I find myself going over that, like you know, I use up the full two hours and then it's like you know, okay, shut out, or it actually do you need more time, and I find myself adding more time sometimes, but I'm doing better at that because I really do. I'm finding out now that when I'm on my phone before bed, it's harder for me to fall asleep or I don't have a piece for night, if that makes sense to you guys, so you can limit yourself on how many screen time you have. Now I'm a TV junkie so I cannot get rid of TV yet and I'm working on it. So this is what I do at night I journal, meditate, reflect on the day, read a few pages of the book 15 pages and then the TV is the last thing that I have, because I'm watching an episode of one of my shows and then, because the guys, I just can't get rid of my TV yet. So, yes, let me recap, because I feel like I've been around Blaine. So let me recap.

Speaker 2: 15:58

We're talking today about ways you can prioritize yourself and practice self care. So I spoke about earlier how my journey with my oral health is what opened my eyes to really and truly believe in or realizing that I need to practice self care. And, of course, guys, we're all supposed to be inside, in the sense of going out for brunch, treating yourself to a move which I don't. Any movies, cinemas open right now. You know retail therapy, getting your hair done, waxing, mani pedi all these are part of self care.

Speaker 2: 16:30

Well, just be mindful that when you're thinking about self care, you're thinking about the service making sure you're oral health, making sure you're when it comes to women's health. You want to make sure that your every channel health is good. You want to make sure that everything is good physically, in a spiritual and, of course, mentally. You know everyone is not really open to the idea of a senior therapist, but you know this. I'm sure there's someone you can talk to. But let's find a way to manage your mental health Because, as my therapist said to me I'm recording this episode on a Friday she was like you know, your mental health really and truly is important and you need to make it a priority. You know what I mean. So, then, and therefore, make sure that you find a way to make sure that you're practicing good mental health.

Speaker 2: 17:10

And then I spoke about things you can start to do to prioritize yourself. You know, we said meditate, more meditation. That can look different for you, for me, getting to the word in the morning or at night, sometimes I read a scripture, reflect, and then, you know, I'm out here in the morning to physically thanking God for, you know, waking me up, giving me the activity of my limbs, making my right mind, giving me an opportunity to take a deep breath. You know, of course, I'll drink a glass of lemon water. That's some things that I do. I said I spoke about journaling, so you're gonna meditate and you're gonna journal. You can create your own gratitude journal. You know you can talk about things that you're thankful for. You can bring, dump what it being the one you know at night about whatever it is that you want to talk about, you want to let out. Just make sure you journal that.

Speaker 2: 17:56

I will spoke about writing out your goals. When you write your goals, that brings clarity and oftentimes you know your goals do come to fruition when you do that. I also mentioned having a healthy meal, or just having a meal or three meals in a day, to whatever it is, just having a healthy or a full meal. That to me, self-care and I guess for me, because, again, my appetite is not that great. So it is a priority for me to make sure that I am having a healthy meal. But of course I'm gonna be sprinkling in my chick-fil-a and my pizza because, because that's my faith, talk to yourself in the mirror. Like I said, anytime you see a mirror, for me is usually my bathroom, but where I am, when I see a mirror, I'm always repeating some form of affirmation To myself because, again, I believe life and death is in the power of the tongue. So you know, as you affirm yourself, you start believing, and that will give you the confidence that you need.

Speaker 2: 18:48

I also mentioned that you can read, pick up a book. Again, reading would definitely broaden your horizon. You can learn something new, or you can learn a new skill, because, again, we're all inside trying to find something to do with this quarantine situation. So you can also learn a skill. And as I turn off social media now I don't have the ability to completely turn social media off, I'm not there yet in my goals so what I've been doing is I've been limiting myself to two hours a day to social media. I have added minutes before, but you know that's some things that I do, because I realized that you know, being on my phone right before I go to bed, it just doesn't make me sleep Well, so that's what I do. So, again, meditate, have a healthy meal, journal I thought you go, talk to yourself in the mirror, read, learn a skill and turn off social media. So those are all tips that I have for you guys.

Speaker 2: 19:39

I'll probably talk about this another time, even in depth, but this is that's all, basically what I do and all the things that I think you can do to prioritize. So, and, of course, don't forget to smile and this is coming from someone who I Really smile, but, you know, really introduce a smile. That's gonna bring your Bill, your confidence. So Definitely try to add a smile daily. So, as I'm getting ready to wrap up, guys, so I'm having a rambling, I do speak fast, but, um, definitely make sure that you're prioritizing your self care and, again, like I said, you know, get no nails done over here and everything that is part of self-care, but make sure that we are taking care of our physical health and our real guys. So then that way, when we are Intune with who we are or how our bodies function, we can know that, hey, if something doesn't seem right, we know. You know what I need to go see my doctor, I need to go do x, y, z to make sure that I'm having, you know I'm achieving optimal health. So definitely make sure that you're practicing, you know your physical health, your spiritual, your mental and, of course, these are some ways that you can Prioritize yourself, like what I said earlier.

Speaker 2: 20:46

You know, to be honest, guys, these things that I listed about Meditating, journaling, having a healthy meal, right what you goes, talk yourself in the mirror, turn on social media, read whatever. All these things can be done 10, 15 minutes in a day. It doesn't even take that long. You know what? You're really truly taking time out for yourself. So it can be 10 minutes tops, because you're probably thinking, oh, she's listening, all these things, we'll have time. All this thing can happen in 10 minutes.

Speaker 2: 21:12

I'm not saying to you for you to do everything what you just try to do, at least as much as you possibly can, with this thing that I listed. I am gonna stop fumbling here Because you know me, I'm trying to make sure I'm not boring you guys. That's my idea of self-care. This is what I do For myself here. They are days when I fall off the wagon because I just can't be bothered, but I've been trying to be more consistent and I've been seeing results. I hope you guys found these valuable tips and as usual, I mean she guys, send me a message, share this podcast so we can know. You can let me know how you guys feel.

Speaker 2: 21:46

But before I go, I do want to try to start this new thing. I don't know, I'll see how long, how long it lasts when I'm going to tell you what I'm diving into, what I'm feeling right now so that I can close the show. So right now, what I'm into and I'll probably every week I'll probably listen to maybe a tv show, a book or both, but I'll see what for today's episode. What I am diving into right now is this show called bull. It shows in CBS. I have been obsessed. I mean I remember when I first saw the commercial a few years back, but again, being a tv junkie, it was clashing with one of my other shows. And anyway, long story short, it's on CBS access and I have been binge watching the last few weeks and let me tell you I'm just obsessed with that show. So, in case you want to check out the new show, you're looking for something to binge, you can check out bull. It's a pretty good Show. So that's what I've been diving into.

Speaker 2: 22:35

Let me see what else have I been doing? Kind of think of anything else, but make sure, you guys, I guess, so you can check out the show bull. Or if you're looking for something else that you want to watch that I haven't watched, you can check out snowfall, season 5, I think, premiered February 25th. Anyway, never mind, don't quote me, but you should check out the show bull and snowfall. That's what I'm getting into Right now. All right, guys. So thank you, thank you. Thank you for listening to the tea Italian podcast. I hope you are able to take away something from the tea tasting room and, of course, make sure you like share, comment, subscribe and review this podcast. Thank you, Thank you and, of course, I'll see you On the next episode of the tea Good Tiny podcast. Bye.