Back in 2009 when I crashed out of my senior corporate role, I soon came to realise the one thing that had been missing from my life.

Self-Care – I had over the years became great at looking out for and looking after others whilst pushing my own needs to the side then ignoring what it was I, myself was screaming out for.

It was not an easy lesson and one that took me a while to understand. I hadn’t always ignored self-care, looking back I came to realise that at the times I practiced I was in fact at my happiest and most calm. Life had become highly pressured and certainly overwhelming by the time I received my mental health diagnosis of burnout. I was working long hours, always being there for family and friends, taking on everyone’s problems, organising all the social events and basically being everything to everybody.

Something had to give and it was my health that finally crumbled under the weight of it all.

Today I now spend time practising self-care on a daily basis, anything from reading a book, going for a walk, watching a movie or doing a jigsaw all fits in nicely with the routine of the day. So don’t be afraid to take some time out for you every day, don’t listen to that inner voice telling you that it is wrong and you have no time for it, shout back, take action and know that self-care is not selfish and it is in fact something each and every one of us has to do to maintain the equilibrium of life.