I don’t know about you, but I wear a lot of hats during the day. So it’s VERY important to me that I am setting aside some time weekly to check in with MYSELF.
Which means im asking myself intentional questions to better understand what I’m feeling, and what I’m needing. Which, as a mother of three, isn’t always easy to pour into yourself. But it’s NECESSARY 🫶🏻
So in today’s blog post I am going to talk about what my “check in” with myself looks like, how I check my mindset, and how I go about cultivating a more positive mindset that helps feel like happier, healthier, and more resilient version of myself.
So whether you’re facing a difficult situation, or simply want to enhance your well-being, I hope these tips can be applied to your daily life and mindset as well ✨
So, let’s just dive in.
First things first.
👇🏻
Do you check in with yourself?
I mean, REALLY sitting down with the intention on fully hearing the responses you are giving.
If not, it’s okay. This is why I am sharing this with you, so that you can become more intentional with listening to yourself.
I personally didn’t start doing this myself until about a year or so ago.
In the past, yes.. I would halfheartedly ask myself, “hey, you good?”
But I wasn’t super intentional on actually listening to my needs.
So when I started to add this practice of “checking in with myself”, and listening to what my mind and body was saying, is when it started to actually make a big difference.
Here is what my check-in questions look like:
I personally have all these questions saved on my notes app in my phone (but feel free to save the image above to your phone for easy access to these questions). This way I am not constantly having to write these questions down over and over each time I do my check in.
But how I personally conduct this check in is I will read the prompt off my notes app, and write my response in my journal (usually dating each entry).
I am a BIG pen and paper kinda person.
So this is just what works for me. But my suggestion to you would be— if this is something you want to also implement as well— 👉🏻write your responses down.
Whether its on paper OR if you are typing it into a a separate space in your notes app on your phone.
But you need to physically be able to see your response written down.
Because like I said earlier about doing this check-in halfheartedly…
By saying the response out loud (or in my head) I wasn’t actually giving myself time to actually sit with my responses and really reflect on them.
So by going through this list of questions, writing them down, and allowing myself to come back to them to look at what my body or mind is feeling/needing felt way more beneficial for me.
Let’s use the “cup of water” analogy.
Pretend your cup is full of water. The water represents your overall wellbeing.
We know that if we go around filling up everyone else’s cup up with water from your own cup— eventually, you will run out of water and have nothing left to give. This is when we will start to encounter that dreaded burn out that will leave us feeling like we need to disassociate mentally or socially.
We might start to lose interest in the things we love and spark our own joy.
We might start to notice we are more irritable or on edge all the time.
And when we aren’t taking care of ourselves nutritionally by not eating enough food throughout the day,
or even allowing ourselves to binge on certain foods that make us feel good for a moment or two, but leaves us feeling not-so-great physically—
it ALL takes a toll on us, from the inside and out.
So that is why I check in with myself often— to make sure I am not neglecting my own self-needs or self-care— because sometimes (especially as a mom), it’s easy to do.
I personally like to do these check-ins with myself a few times a week.
Usually for me, I like to start the week with a check-in. So Monday morning while I am doing my journaling (which is part of my morning routine) I will allow that time to be super intentional about checking in with myself.
Then later on in the week, depending on how I am feeling, I will check in with myself again.
But this can be done as MANY times as you want/need.
Whether you structure it so it’s something you do as a part of your morning routine as well, or if it is a “end of the day” type of practice— just make sure wherever you add this in— it’s at a time of the day where you can be SUPER intentional with hearing your responses.
My hopes with sharing this with you is to help you realize that maybe this isn’t something you are doing regularly, or maybe even at all?
And like I said earlier, if you aren’t doing this… it’s okay 🤗
But hopefully after reading this blog post, it will be something you will consider doing… even if you are only implementing this practice only once a week.
Because checking in with oneself means that you are taking a moment to reflect on YOUR thoughts, emotions, and your physical and mental wellbeing.
Checking in with yourself is a way of becoming more aware of your own needs, desires, and limitations.
Yes, I also use check in questions on my kids… well, the older two.
And without them actually realizing I was doing it, I would ask them things like:
- What is something you are super proud of yourself for doing this week? (So I could celebrate that WITH them).
- What is something that made you happy or smile today?
- Has anything specific been making you feel not so happy?
- What was the best part of your day or week?
- What is one way you were kind to yourself today, or this week?
- Has anything felt hard or confusing for you this week? (Again, this was an important I listened to so I could be more aware of what things there were feeling challenged with).
I know for kids… they don’t always know how to make sense of their feelings and emotions, so being able to identify what they may be feeling together— and talk through it can be super beneficial to them, and you to as the parent learning how to better help support the big emotions they may be feeling.
But yes..
Checking in is HUGE.
But more than that,
being INTENTIONAL with your check-ins and becoming more self-aware IS HUGE!
Allowing yourself to actually listen to what types of self-care you might be needing more of IS HUGE!
And by identifying what stressors in your life are weighing a little more heavy on you lately.. is also HUGE!
Also just remember that when you check-in with yourself, the outcome might not always be the same as far as👉🏻 You might notice yourself needing to slow down more physically one week, and then the following week you might notice you have tons more energy—but you might be finding that you need a little more mental health self-care that week.
Listen to your body. Listen to your mind. & be INTENTIONAL with actually checkin in with yourself.
You deserve that, friend!
I really hope you enjoyed this blog post!
And if you did, please send this link to a friend you think might also enjoy it! 💓
But until my next post—
Please take care of yourself from the inside out 🥰
Love you!
