How to Take Care of Yourself While Serving the World
Service to others plays a major role in doing your dream work. But how do you take care of yourself when you’re busy building an empire, creating a legacy and changing the world?
Self-care is the number one factor determining whether someone can fulfil their dream work or not. It is the most important aspect of doing this kind of work in the world. If you are over-serving and under-valuing yourself, you are setting yourself up for burnout, and at that point you are no longer contributing anything of value despite having the best intentions.
Your capacity to serve, and therefore your capacity to receive, is equal to the level at which you are healthy and whole.
That means if you have loose boundaries, fears, or are physically, mentally, and even energetically weak, you are not able to serve at your highest.
A healthy obsession to give, contribute, and succeed can quickly turn into addiction if you are not consciously practicing self-care every single day. Beyond this, the fastest way to bring your dreams and desires to life is to feel good. So why would you not want to take care of yourself?
If your sense of self and self-worth is tied up in helping others you will struggle to say no or to put your needs first. Mental programming and distorted thinking around this creates behavioural patterns that are representative of archetypes like mother, servant, and healer. And while these archetypes in their healthy form are magnificent, in their unhealthy forms they are weak, overbearing, and out of control.
Healthy and whole should always be the goal!
At The Dreamwork Collective, we believe each individual already knows what they need to be healthy and whole. You already have the answers inside yourself. So we wanted to share with you some of our favourite ways to practice self-care while we serve the world in the hope it reminds you to look after yourself too.
Kira: My go-to self-care practices include journaling, always honouring my core values, and tuning in daily to everything that is important to me through one small act that honours it. This could be as simple as sending a text message to a loved one or having a green juice every morning for my health.
Thalia: Kira introduced me to the idea of Morning Pages – writing three pages first thing in the morning. I don't quite know why, but I've been finding it really helpful – something that I actively look forward to. It feels like pressing a reset button: getting worries out of my head and on to paper allows me to not carry them around with me through my day. Yoga is an important part of my life too. My mind and body always feels at least slightly different at the end of a class. I think it's a bit like polishing one's glasses – I have a better sense of perspective.
Rhiannon: Journaling and mindset work has become an important part of my life over the last two years. I like to journal and set my intentions for each day and often create gratitude lists. I also try to go to the gym or an exercise class at least three mornings a week, which allows me to have some down time, clear my head and it energises me for the day ahead.
Bondie: I believe that setting my intentions and backing them up with prayer and gratitude makes a huge difference in my mood, mindset and life. I always do my best to take at least ten minutes at the beginning of each day to breathe deeply and write down how I desire the day to go, what I expect to accomplish, and the way in which I want to accomplish it. Another way I practice self-care is to schedule coffee dates with close friends all throughout the month.