How many of us put the happiness of others before our own needs? Most of us I expect.
One of the elements of the Mental Health First Aid course is a Happiness Hour. A Happiness Hour is where you take a hour to yourself to look after yourself, to treat yourself kindly, to spoil yourself, without guilt. To look after others, we need to be in the best mental place first and I think this is true.
We don’t need to do anything expensive or lavish, just an hour, to yourself, doing something you enjoy.
It’s rare that I have time to read a book. One of my dear friends lent me a book ages (and I mean AGES) ago and I still haven’t read it so I downloaded it as a free trial from Audible and ran myself a nice hot bath with some Body Shop bath milk in. I lit a scented candle given to me by another lovely friend and turned the lights off.
I spent the next 30 minutes, relaxing, listening to the audio book, in a candlelit room, surrounded by lovely smellies, just chilling out. I had a Body Shop warming Ginger and Minerals face mask, an Argan Oil Body Scrub (again from the Body Shop) and finished off with a Body Shop cream which had been bobbing about in the bath with me to warm it up a bit before I slathered it on!
Bliss. Absolute Bliss. It was 30 not 60 minutes but that was enough for me Just enough to recharge my batteries and leave me feeling nicely mellow. And my skin feels amazing! The only thing that spoiled it slightly was the fact that I didn’t close the bathroom door properly and the dogs rushed in and tried to rub themselves all over my legs as soon as I was out of the bath but I soon shoo’d them out!
I love the stuff from the Body Shop. It smells great, isn’t tested on animals and is reasonably priced too, especially if you buy it in one of their regular promotions. My daughter is an At Home consultant for them so we get to hear about the 30% or 40% off offers regularly. I have put a link to her page at the end of this blog in case you want to pop over and take look. They do a lot for charity too https://www.childrenontheedge.org/thebodyshop.html
Don’t feel guilty for taking a little ‘you’ time. You will enjoy it, it will be good for your physical and mental health and your family will benefit too.
With love, as always
Karen xxx
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