You’re the Heartbeat: How Prioritizing Yourself Improves Mental Health, Energy and Balance

That you are the heartbeat of your life, and I need you to keep it going. Because in order to deal with the bigger stuff, you have to, yes, be in a good place to handle it. But nothing works if you're not working. Welcome to the let's Talk about it podcast, where we are taking the fear and frustration out of asking for help when it comes to your emotional and mental health and giving you what you need to think about things a bit different, differently. I'm Lori Streeter, licensed therapist and certified hypnotherapist. And with each episode, I'll bring you thoughts, techniques, or a guest to help you find your breakthroughs and live a healthier, happier life. Are you ready? Let's talk about it. Welcome back to another episode. I am Lori Strader, licensed clinical counselor and certified hypnotherapist, and I want to come at you today with just. Just. Well, come at you didn't sound very nice. I wanna. Yeah, I wanna come at you with a little reminder. I'm not. No, it doesn't sound nice, but, like, that's what it is. We forget to take care of ourselves, right? This. This is what I'm getting at here. We forget to take care of ourselves. We often, as women, we look at taking care of ourselves or putting ourselves first or making our needs a priority as selfish or like, it takes away from other people in our lives or other things that we need to do. So, not that you're a top priority all the time, like, when you're working, you have to work, you have to get things done. When I'm with a client, I'm not the priority, right? Like, there are times in life when we aren't number one in that regard. But to not take care of yourself, not value yourself, not take the time to make yourself a priority on a daily basis or on a regular basis or whatever that looks like, you inevitably create more issues for yourself. It makes other things more difficult when you're not in a good place. Physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, all of the entire whole body wellness when you're not in a good place, it makes those other bigger situations more difficult. When I'm physically out of shape, if I have to run after my dog because she gets off the leash, I can't catch her, right? It makes that situation more difficult. I haven't made my physical health a priority. If I'm not sleeping in, if I'm not dealing with my stress, if I'm not taking care of myself mentally and emotionally, if something stressful happens, I'm not in a good place to deal with that. And that stress is probably going to have way more of an effect on me than if I was being more preventative, if I was getting sleep, dealing with my stress, journaling, taking care of myself, talking about what's going on, dealing with things internally, having conversations, all of those things. Right. So not that you are going to be able, because that's just life. Not that you're going to be able to take care of yourself 100% all the time, other things get in our way. I get that. But if you don't take care of yourself at all, or you're always putting yourself on the back burner, or everything in your life is always coming before you and you're not valuing your own well being, other things in life are going to be problematic. They're going to create other issues for you where they maybe didn't need to if you just took that five minutes or that one minute, or you just had that conversation or you worked out instead of watching tv, whatever it might be. So I want to very much reinforce that. And I talk about self care all the time. Taking care of yourself, taking care of you, making yourself a priority. I try to reinforce that on a regular basis because I think sometimes as people, women especially, but as people, we often need permission that that's okay because we live in a hustle culture or we live in a world where we do, do do for other people and then we come last. So while other things are also a priority, you are too. And the way I look at this is you are the heartbeat of your life. If you look around and you're in the center and you have your family and your friends around you and you have work around you and the things you're dealing with or the changes that are coming up, if you put you in the middle and your life is revolving around you, right? Not in an egotistical kind of way, but. But in the sense that you are the heartbeat of your life. It's not pressure, and I don't mean that in a bad way. But if you don't keep yourself beating, right, if you don't keep that heart beating, you can't keep the blood flow going to all those parts of your life. You can't keep the life force flowing outward to the rest of your life if you're not beating and pumping effectively sometimes. Well, my clients know I often think in analogies and metaphors and things like that, and I definitely use them on the podcast. So if you've been listening for a Long time you've heard me use things like that before. A lot of times it's like, yeah, Lori, easier said than done, you know, Great. I don't have time to make myself a priority. 30 seconds, a minute, a day, whatever it means. But sometimes when I talk about it in terms of, you are literally the heartbeat, and you need to be able to stay pumping so that you can make the blood flow, the life force, flow to the rest of your life, to all those aspects, your friends, your family, your work, other things that you're doing. I use those metaphors, analogies, whatever the proper verbiage is, I. I use that to reinforce the image of what that looks like. Because again, if I just say, take care of yourself and I reinforce the importance of it, you're thinking, okay, awesome, great. I got a lot going on. I'm not a priority. I have kids. I have other things that take precedent over myself. I understand that and I have compassion for that. But if I can explain it in the sense that if you are the heartbeat and you don't take care of yourself, you create more problems. When your heart's not beating effectively, efficiently, we have blockages and your limbs go numb and your leg turns blue because it's not getting blood flow. Right? Like physically, in the body, if your heart's not working, other issues happen. So in your life, if you don't find a way to value yourself and make yourself a priority with whatever that looks like, you are inevitably going to impact other things in your life because you're not able to pump that blood, that energy, that life force, to the other things in your life that matter. I just feel like it's important to give myself that reminder to remind you to put it out there that you matter, that you are the heartbeat of your life. And I need you to keep it going. Because in order to deal with the bigger stuff, you have to, yes, be in a good place to handle it. But nothing works if you're not working. Things fall apart if you're not there to be able to deal with them. You, as the heartbeat of your own life, value that. I don't mean it in a pressure negative kind of way. I want to reinforce it in the sense that you matter. You are the central force, the life force of your life. And in order to give and continue pumping that energy to other people, you need to be able to, to make sure that you are working effectively. It's not to say that we are 100% all the time, that you're every day going to be able to do your skin care and get enough sleep and deal with your stress and right, like it's life, things happen, things are going to get in our way. But if you're not making yourself a priority or you're not valuing your own well being, it's going to probably create some other issues in other aspects of your life. So just remember you are the life force that you need to take care of in order to take care of everything else around you. Take care of yourself, take care of you, value yourself. You are important. I know that sounds so fluffy, but I can't say it enough. One of the biggest things I do with my clients is, is somehow get them to understand that they matter and that they need to take care of themselves in order to take care of whatever is going on in their life. They come first in that aspect and I need you to understand that. The same way it looks different for everybody. I totally understand that. But until you actually value and really understand that you matter and you have to keep yourself beating right? You are the heartbeat and you gotta keep it going. Things are gonna be more difficult. So take care of yourself, put some energy into yourself, whatever that might look like. If you need reminders like this, text podcast to 630-228-1002 and I will put you on my list to text every morning at 9am to remind you of this stuff, to keep you inspired, to keep you motivated, to keep you going, to give you those just daily reinforcements that you are a focus and it's just important. Those little reminders can often make a huge difference. So if you want me to send you those texts, join me. Send podcast to 630-228-1002 and I will gladly add you to my list and you every morning at 9am with these little reminders. But I hope this helps remind you and reinforce that you have to figure out what it looks like, but that you're a priority and that you matter and you are literally the heartbeat of your life. And it's up to you to pump efficiently so that you can take care of all of the other things you want and need to take care of. I'm here for you if you need anything. Let me know. I hope to see you on the text list. I would love to send you those messages every morning and I will talk to you on the next episode. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. If you loved this episode, it would mean so much if you would share it with someone who you think would love it too. And don't forget to leave a review with your thoughts on what resonated or even what you'd like to hear more of. Because I promise you, if something's on your mind, it's on other people's minds, too. I appreciate your help in getting these messages on mental health out into the world. And until next time, cheers to living a healthier, happier life.