The “Skills” of Self-Care with Christine Gautreaux

Do you often find yourself exhausted before you even get the chance to do some self-care? Are you ready to find out how you can prioritize yourself while still being of service to others?

Self-care isn’t really about the glitz and glamour in the midst of your busy lifestyle. The myth of getting your hair done or putting on nail polish won’t really help you get back into your body. It’s more about reconnecting and reprioritizing yourself. So, what should you really be doing to take good care of yourself physically and mentally?

Christine Gautreaux, MSW, holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Social Work and is a professional speaker, coach, author, and entrepreneur. She is the co-author of Stillpoint: A Caregivers Playbook and the co-host of the Women Connected in Wisdom Podcast. Christine believes in the power of body wisdom and somatic play to help heal trauma. She works with women from all walks of life to maintain balance and do self-care during these intense times in which we find ourselves living.

In this episode, Christine shares what self-care is really all about, and it’s not what you’ve always thought! She also discusses the actual skills involved in self-care and how you can practice them.

 

What you will learn from this episode:

Identify what self-care is and is not Learn how you can reprioritize yourself and put yourself back up on the top of your to-do list Find out ways you can take care of yourself while taking care of others

 

“Self-care means tuning into ourselves and learning how to read our own body language.”

- Christine Gautreaux

 

Valuable Free Resource:

How to start your proper self-care journey and reprioritize yourself: https://christinegautreaux.com/

 

Topics Covered:

05:33 - Challenge is reprioritizing their health and wellness which hinders them from finding ease and time for themselves

06:29 - Not prioritizing themselves and putting everybody else’s needs ahead of their own needs: the common mistake business women leaders make when trying to do self-care

07:20 - One free and actionable tip you can do to assess yourself and practice self-care: The very first thing I tell myself and I tell everybody else is to take a deep breath and get back in your body. And you'll say, "Christine, I'm breathing" and you may not be. Like you may be breathing fast or holding your breath because that often happens in stress. So, the first thing I would say is to take a deep breath consciously, let your belly relax, let that breath go all the way down to your belly, and then let it out

08:40 - One valuable free resource to help you be reminded to take a minute to take care of yourself and breathe: christinegautreaux.com

09:46 - Q: Are there actual skills involved with self-care? A: The answer to that is yes! We've identified five skills of self-care in the book, Stillpoint that we stand by, and we live by. I'm going to name them for your audience.

 

Key Takeaways:

“Take a deep breath, and get back in your body.” - Christine Gautreaux

“Find something that is not work, and that is not beholden to somebody else, where you can be with yourself and get in tune with your body.” - Christine Gautreaux

“Self-care is also not, and this is a big one for our female leaders, putting ourselves through frequent reoccurring cycles of overwork, followed by crashing to recover this rhythm of full speed ahead, followed by total collapse is damaging to all dimensions of ourselves-- the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.” - Christine Gautreaux

“Self-care is tuning in. It's recognizing earlier and earlier, the subtle physical signs of potential difficulties.” - Christine Gautreaux

 

Ways to Connect with Christine Gautreaux:

Website: https://www.christinegautreaux.com/ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/women-connected-in-wisdom-podcast/id1556786980 Event: https://linktr.ee/christinegautreauxmsw

 

Ways to Connect with Sarah E. Brown:

Website: https://www.sarahebrown.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/knowguides LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahebrownphd/