Did you hear our big news?  After many, MANY months of waiting, we finally became foster parents to a sweet six month old baby boy!  It has been an emotional rollercoaster already, for our whole family.  We already love this precious one so much and feel so bonded to him, and yet…we are also rooting for his mom to do what she has to do to get her son back.  And yet…we are also hoping beyond hope that we can adopt him someday and be his forever family.  So when I say all the feels, I really do mean ALL. THE. FEELS.

As I have been flung back into the throes of mothering a baby, I have felt my need for self-care rise, while simultaneously feeling my time for it diminish.  Funny how that works, huh?

In order to keep on keepin’ on with prioritizing self-care, I thought it would be great to start using a hashtag for everyone in our little self-care community to add to their Insta photos anytime you’re practicing self-care.  Enter, our new community hashtag:

#showusyourselfcare

Catchy, right?  Although I must admit I feel a bit like Gretchen Weiners, trying to make “fetch” a thing.  But unlike Gretchen Weiners, I think #showusyourselfcare could really BE a thing.  #yougoglencoco

There’s a few reasons I think sharing our moments of self-care will benefit us, so allow me to share them with you.

Self-Care Accountability

When we share our self-care photos using our amazing new hashtag, we are, in essence saying: “check it out!  I did it!  I prioritized my me-time today.”  And that is something worth celebrating!  That is something that will encourage our friends and loved ones to follow suit.  How many times are we waiting for someone to give us permission to do something that benefits us?  How many times do we envy someone else who is living with peace and joy, and then feel guilty when we actually do something good for ourselves?  Yep, we’ve all been there.  So let’s be proud when we practice self-care, when we have a mental health win, or when we choose self-love over self-loathing.  By sharing our victories, we’re sending a message to ourselves and others that self-care makes us better!

Self-Care Ideas

So often, we may stumble upon an extra bit of time in our day and want to use it for self-care, but then have no idea what to actually DO when that happens.  If you struggle with decision fatigue, you may want to scroll through the #showusyourselfcare feed for some instant self-care inspo.  It’s always fun to see what other people do for self-care, and what helps them relax.  You could be getting tons of new ideas for your own self-care practice and helping countless others in our tribe do the same simply by tagging your photos with our fetch new hashtag (you see what I did there?  I’m pretty determined to also make fetch a thing).

Self-Care Besties

One thing I’m hoping to do more of in 2019 is to connect more as a community of women who are striving for the same mental (and physical) health gains!  I want us to be able to get to know each other and spur each other on in our quest to take care of ourselves and increase our peace.  I hope that by using the hashtag, we will have a way to more easily connect with our fellow self-care besties.  I have to admit, that’s my favorite part of everything I do online – connecting with you!  You crack me up in DMs, encourage me on a difficult day, and share vulnerably with me about what you’re going through.  I can’t thank you enough for that!

As we wind down 2018 and head into a bright new year, I’d love to help connect more of you to each other, as well as stay connected to you myself! We have so much to share and learn from each other, and I’m excited about regularly featuring besties who are using the hashtag on my Instagram and Facebook feeds!

So what do you say, my Besties?  Are you in or are you IN?!  I, for one, am already thinking about all the gram-worthy self-care moments I want to share in the future!  And if you aren’t yet following along with me on Instagram or Facebook, I invite you to do so now so you won’t miss a thing – those are the places I show up each and every day to connect with you in real time! 🙂