Integritus Prime

In our Beyond Medicine series on Facebook, we started a new conversation called ‘Wellness in Transition’. The first topic for discussion was self-care in transition. Self-care is important in general, as we outlined in a previous post, but why is it even more important in a transition?

Basically, what happens in a major transition is that there’s a lot of added stress to what we are dealing with already in our busy lifestyles. If we have a weak or rudimentary self-care practice, it goes out the window in times of added stress.

A mindful and well-developed self-care routine invariably allows us to attend to our health and wellness practices, including physical, mental and emotional needs. We eat, sleep, relax, and exercise well and ensure we have adequate time to recharge after stressful days. Even though change is a constant, major transitional events upset our routine and self-care becomes a casualty.

Transitions could be gradual or sudden. If we are aware of the impending change in our lives, such as getting married, having a baby, moving house or office, then we can prepare for these without compromising our self-care routine. However, if the transition is sudden, like unexpected death of a loved one, damage to our house due to natural disasters, restrictions due to an outbreak of infectious diseases such as the COVID-19 pandemic, these usually increase the stress causing an emotional upheaval.

During such abrupt and significant transitions, we generally forget our routines and go into crisis management mode – self-care may be forgotten or put on the back burner. We may forget to eat on time or deal with the emotions that arise or even ask for support from people who we usually interact with.

Transition is the time when self-care is more important so that we can be balanced, grounded and deal with the situation in a rational manner. We need to mindfully take care of ourselves so we can better manage the transition. To maintain a self-care routine during transition we need to:

1. Always be gentle with ourselves
2. Maintain grounding and relaxation exercises
3. Re-strategize the way forward in the current situation
4. Brainstorm with close friends or colleagues, if needed
5. Take small, manageable steps forward
6. Acknowledge and deal with our emotions
7. Accept what we can not change

It is absolutely alright to let our friends help us if they offer support, share with them your emotions, tell them what type of support we need or tell them to just be there for us so we can share our concerns and come up with solutions ourselves.

Women are often socially conditioned to care for everyone else and neglect self-care, since we are still living in a patriarchal society. They may consider self-care as selfishness. This is definitely not true, as self-care allows us to be at our optimum and give our best to others. Alchemus Prime conducts courses on empowered communications to teach self-care practices such as setting boundaries and leading a more balanced life.

As friends of persons in transition, we could offer support, be there for them and maybe gently remind them about self-care if we see them neglecting this. We could also help empaths and people–pleasers by being a role model to them and reminding them gently about the need for self-care. These people maybe at a higher risk of burnout in major transitions because they don’t practice much self-care in general.

What are your go-to strategies during major transitions? Share with us so we can all learn together.