Adventist Radio London inspiration for the song well, Welcome to Talking Point with Ray
Angela discussing the hot topics and answering your questions, Saturday's five to seven pm
on Adventist Radio London. It's talking Point. It's talking Point. It's talking
Point. It's talking point. Real conversations you need to have. Good evening,
good evening, good evening, and welcome to talking Point. Talking Point.
There's real conversations you need to have. UM, So I hope you
were all keeping well. Welcome to talking Point. Um, I'd love to
say, I hope you've had a good day and a good sabbath. I've
had a really rainy sabbath. I'm not sure where are last. Sunshine has
gone too, but the rain is probably a bit of a welcome break maybe
for some people. I'm sure people who are keen gardeners are glad for a
bit of the rain because things we're looking a bit parched and scorched. So
yes, I hope, hopefully, let me just stop that. Hopefully you're
having a good day so far. So we'recome to talking Point. We've got
an interesting topic that we are talking about today, and we shall talk a
little bit more that in a second. But as we get started, let's
pray and we'll make a start. Father God, I want to thank you
for blessing us with a wonderful Sabbath day today, and even though it maybe
darla raining, we're thankful for the weather. I know I spoke about the
weather today and how much it reflects your character and your greatness and goodness for
us. I thank you, Dear Lord, for this day and for the
gift that is Sabbath, and we'll be talking about how that rest day can
feed into our own self care practices. So I pray, Dear Lord,
that you bless this program today and that the listeners will gain something that would
be inspiring for them today. This is my prayer. Amen. So Senya,
how are we? I am good? I can't remember where we left
off. Um. Last Sabbath was obviously contest and let's hab before. I
think we did another rerun. So it's been maybe a couple of weeks.
Two weeks. Yeah, my memory sasling. There's more always um and yeah,
so it's good to be that. Welcome to talking point everyone. Um,
we missed your thought and yeah, I'm still sore. I don't agree
if I mentioned it the last time, but I am found roller skating.
Yes, I think I think the last time you said you were going role
skating. Um, so you went roller skating and and yeah, but I
won't give up. I don't question is though, did you have fun when
you were around skating? Did you have fun when you were roller skating?
I do, I do. I mean I feel as I can stay up
right, I'm okay, but at the moment, as I'm learning, I'm
more on the floor than i am up right. Okay, Well, I
guess that's all part of it. I guess it is a work in progress.
But yeah, very very sort. Yeah, well I haven't skated for
a long time. I'm not sure i'd be any good actually, although yeah,
it's funny it is. Once you've stopped, it takes a while again.
Yeah again, Um so it really is doing it to do it regularly.
Um so I've had to take a break, so hopefully I will have
to start from scratch when I go back home. Some progress, Yeah,
but in any case, I really do enjoy it. My mind is just
so focus on staying up that nothing else. There's a good escape for me.
Yeah, talk about self care, maybe a moment to touch a map.
Yes, yeah, enjoying, enjoying the process and the progress. Um
and this tweet high that, of course, wasn't my son's birthday. Wow
he's sixteen? Oh my gosh. Well yeah yeah yeah, oh happy birthday
to Jay. Oh I get this. Well yeah, so I was surrounded
with about eleven or twelve young people sixteen bluff. And I can tell you
I'm exhausted. All the teachers. You know, they had to add to
it for five hours. Yeah yeah, yeah, whoa, no, I
hear that, but it was it was. It was like blustic, but
it was fun. He had a good time. They had a good time,
and good good master for him. And I thank God or for you
know, for his life and continued protection and blessings. Yeah. Oh wow,
oh sixteen, My goodness. I bet you're probably thinking, where has
that time? Where has that time gone? I remember when we hold him
in the you know, in the length of my hands. Yeah, now
that's the soul of his feet. Wows. Yeah, you know, he's
just he's you know, powering over me, strapping young man. And I'm
like, whoa, what where did that happen? Um? But you know
that is good and if you blame you miss it. Yeah. So as
parents, A just encourage you to just be part of the process, every
step of it. Yeah, it's it's special. Yeah. Actually, before
you know, there'll be adults and they'll be making their own way in law.
And it was excited to ten sixteen. He was like, I don't
know what sixteen means as my to him. Maybe it's because of you know,
moving on in life, maybe more approaching fifty sixty. I look back
and I think I think, well, those were special times, but often
the young people kind of rushed past it. Yes, yeah, they don't
appreciate youth. They don't appreciate that time in their life that they're quit to
become adult. But I have to constantly remind them, at it's not all
it's cracked up to be. The special the years where you can sit among
his lap and all that kind of stuff, cherished love, you know.
Yeah, they want to be grown, yes, yeah, but I wanted
to be grown. So it's it's a cyclist. It's what happens, isn't
it. But yeah, he's enjoying it. He's enjoying being a school for
sure, or waking up at one o'clock in the afternoon. Um, but
I find something to put him to do. Great. Yeah, cool,
he's enjoying it, and I'm glad because he's happy, he's healthy. What
more can I ask for it? Yeah? Lovely Again, it flew past.
It's funny actually, because I kind of wonder whether I come to the
end of the week and I wonder whether it's actually been a very productive week.
It kind of feels like it hasn't been. It's been quite up and
down for many reasons. Yeah, so I'm not I'm not sure it was
the best week. And I think the way this morning went, I was
due to drive down to Ballam. I was at my mum's and I came
out ready on time, and my car back she was dead, and I
was just like, oh my goodness. With my history of car troubles,
I was like, hold on, I'm sort of myself, this shouldn't be
happening. So I think I left something on I know. So it was
just like, okay, this is but you know, sometimes these things happen
for a reason. And I realized, even as I was driving up today,
just how tired I was. So maybe you know that sort of extra
hour or so a couple of hours drive would have been just too much.
So I've sort of got to the end of the week and I'm tired.
So I think today's program, hopefully we'll be some inspiration to actually sort of
do something, you know, to start looking after myself a bit better and
and doing stuff. So, yeah, it feels like it's been a really
busy week. Um yeah, and I'd like to think, what did they
do that has been so great? I got do remember? Um, but
yeah, I know it feels that way, but but yes, yeah,
but you know, thank God, and I'm really glad that, Yeah,
I got made it through another week. It's the weekend. Hopefully I will
get some time to chill. So yeah. So, which brings us on
to today's topic and Pedro hopefully we'll join us at some point afternoon. I
think he was on the road doing some traveling as well. And we have
a guest with us today. Um, so I'm gonna say hi, introduce
her very briefly, we'll come back to you. So we've got Claire Thomas
with us today. Hi, Claire, how are you good? Thank you?
It's loving to be here. Thank you for having me. Good.
So today's topic actually she'll ask you actually before we go on, how was
your week being? Actually, as we're talking about our weeks, it's been
busy this week. I'm about to have a few days off, and it
is always amazing for a few days off that you sort of suddenly go,
oh, I haven't done X, Y and Z. So I felt I
just been trying to crab stuff in this week, but that it's all good,
good, good, good, well. Thank you for joining us,
and welcome to Talking Points. So today we're going to be talking about self
care. Now, when I was sort of thinking about this, Um,
sometimes we don't necessarily have titles for our show, but I kind of thought
about this one in terms of who's looking after you? Um, sometimes we're
so we're often very busy doing things for other people. You know, as
Christians, we are encouraged to serve and to help others and look after people.
But how have we often looking after ourselves? This the twenty fourth,
so on Monday, I do believe it's actually International Self Care Day. That
interestingly, the sort of reasoning behind the twenty fourth when it's held on the
twenty fourth is the idea of self care being something that you can do twenty
four seven, so twenty fourth or the seventh of July. So it's something
that should you can do any time, I guess anywhere, I suppose,
But the idea really is that you know, it's something that you do all
of the time. Twenty four seven it also marks the end of International Self
Care Month, So that's during a time a time where you know you're encouraged
to look at self, your own self care, self care initiatives and things
that are being done are being highlighted throughout this month. Now, I don't
know I myself personally had necessarily heard of anything specific around self care over this
last month. Having said that, in the role that I do as my
job, I probably mentioned the word self care every single day I work at
university. As many of you may know, I speak to students most days,
and I know I use that term very often. So, um and
I think it's a bit of an umbrella term, and we're going to unpack
the little bit as well. But self care, the idea of it being
important, crucial, essential, and really the idea of you know, looking
after yourself and what we think about that now, um as I've spoken to
a few people around the topic, it's been quite interesting, you know,
people's viewpoints of it. Um, so I'd be quite interested to see how
our conversation goes with that. But um, I just yes, um one
day we yes, but we'll share the details for them to do so.
And one of the questions I thought, as you you've mentioned canvassing people around
you is what does self care mean to you? Because that I think a
personal it is yourself care. It's your it's your care and for me it's
may be different for you, well not made will be different for you,
it will be different as well. So my question to Alice does is to
come back to us and let us know what does self care mean to you?
When it's eight to eight space and then your response or you can emails
to your other noticed Radio dot London thank you so yes self care? So
yeah, so what is self care? I mean? As I mentioned,
I know, it's a word that I use a lot um and it seems
to be a bit of a buzzword. So yeah, is it something that
you both have heard of? Now I'm going to go straight to Zenia.
Then I'm going to come in with Claire. Then I get Claire sort of
introducing what she does, and that'll be I'm a little bit clearest to while
we've got her on the show today. Um, So, Zenia, what
is self care? Um? Simply, it's what it says on the tail,
it's taking care of self. Um. That's the simplest response to that.
Um. If you want to go deeper, I would say being mindful,
being mindful of your own limits, your needs, your experiences, you
know, just just being aware of what it takes for you to be your
best and calling that in place, and that is what self Yeah, that's
definitely, definitely I totally agree with you on that one. So I'm going
to bring an our guest at this point, we're going to dive straight in.
So we've got Claire Thobas from I'm gonna say, is it a organization
company? Practice company? Cooled nourish to sore? So, Claire, tell
us a little bit about yourself and what you do and your company that you
sure. Yeah. So, i am a registered nutrition therapist and NLP coach,
and I'm on a mission to get or empower Christians to look after themselves
and enjoy life by making personalized nutrition and lifestyle changes. So I believe,
I think, especially with the health journey I've been on. It is crucial
that we are able to top ourselves up, you know, And I think
that's where self care is so vital. And I always think of the car.
You've already met Andrew about your car travels today. But you know,
if we don't hut the right oil, the right right fluid, the right
washing fluid and fuel into a car, it sort of starts to concuret And
I think it's the same for us. I think it's really valuable. So
we are making sure we're topping ourselves up with the correct fuel. And that's
what I do for my clients. It's about looking at their diet and lifestyle
and going where in this equation are you perhaps needing to take time to eat
well, look after yourself well so that you can have the energy to serve
others. You know, as Christians, you've already mentioned it's really important that
we serve others. But if we're serving from an empty place, all we're
doing is burning ourselves out. And that's I don't believe that God wants us
to do that. That's my heart in that, really, you know,
I think God wants us to be well and to serve people from a place
where our buckets are topped up through various self care of practices, which I'm
sure we'll talk about throughout this program. Cool. So, Claire, how
did you? How did you get into this? I mean you mentioned it
maybe possibly a reflection of your own journey, but is this something that you
had always interested you? Or yeah, how did you? And so I
was a johnessness of any I guess they still I'm a children's nurse. But
I was working as a children's nurse and I developed something called chronic fatigue syndrome
or EMMY. And that was in two thousand and twelve, and I was
basically told I would never recover it, was given some antipressants and basically told
just crack on, thank you very much, that's it. But I had
a faith in My faith teaches me that God heals, but sometimes there's that
middle ground, isn't there where you're waiting for the healing, but you don't
want to just sit back and allow life to just carry on. I kind
of quite a proactive individual. So a friend gave me a book that combined
nutrition, faith and mindset, and it set me on this incredible journey of
learning about the power of as I feel myself, as I eat well,
as I know, transform what I'm thinking about as I think about on you
know, biblical principles. I started to see things change in in twenty eighteen,
you know, thanks be to God, I was healed so which was
incredible. But I sparked this real desire to want to support other people to
feel the same. And there was lots of opportunities where I was like,
oh, you know, I really want to study nutrition, and lots of
opportunities came up, but nothing ever resonated. And then in twenty nineteen,
my job changed. I was in a sort of education role within children's nursing
and I was suddenly like, actually, I really feel I need to leave
the NHS and I need to leave now. It was just my now whatever
moment, but I couldn't understand why at the time. And then COVID hit
six months later, and I why, I went, yeah, yeah.
It was like okay, God, you know your ways are not by ways,
but hey, you know, let's correct on. So I went back
to university. In that sort of time frame, I found out what a
nutritional therapist was, and I suddenly realized that that was what I was looking
for because it brought together nutrition and mindset. So it was a holistic approach
to the individual, not just one thing. It was like, let's look
at the person as a whole and what we can do. And I bring
very much spirit in as well. And so I went back to university,
retrained for three years, and then graduated. Ye be doing what I'm doing
now, Okay, yeah, that's fantastic. And it's really interesting how you
said, actually your own it was your own illness at the time that kind
of sparked this. I mean, for you being told that you may not
recover from something that must have been well, I can't even imagine what that'd
be, but I just can imagine how devastating that must have been to hear
and from kind of doctors or practitioners whoever, to tell you that seems incredibly
hopeless, which considering what's happening these days, the idea of looking after yourself
and especially mental health problems appear to be on the rise. I think they
were always there, but it seems, you know, to actually be told
that something can't be fixed or solvable, it is terrible. I mean,
you know, regardless of whether we you know, like you said, do
you have a faith? So the fact that that's been kind of your options
that you were given, which weren't much, must have been terrible. And
you know, my believers that things have changed for people's sense, and I
think COVID long COVID has had some similarities to chronic fatigue, and I think
things have changed thankfully. But at that point, you know, my heart
was to be I was in intensive care and as for children at that point,
and my heart was to sort of be in that environment and get promoted.
And it did turn everything on its head, and it was devastating,
and it took a while to sort of re kind of redig and rebalancing.
Okay, I don't quite see what's happening right now, but it was one
of those you know, I've had many moments where you just sometimes I have
to trust, even though you can't see what's beyond what you know you see
in front of you, that things will figure themselves out, maybe not in
the way that you want them to, but in a way that actually will
work out in a better way for you at some point. So self care,
so we obviously see what it is. Why is it so important for
us, and that seems a really self exploitatory kind of state question. I
feel like I'm answering it before everyone started, but people still struggle with that.
So yeah, why okay, fancy? Then why is it crucial?
I guess it seems a silly question, but I'm asking it anyway. I
don't think it's a s way question. I think for whatever reason, we
find it really hard to prioritize our own needs. We think it's perhaps selfish,
or that if I'm looking after myself, that there's maybe there's guilt there,
there's like I haven't earned the right to do this. But actually,
and I see this with the clients I work with. When you pull into
yourself and you have it, like I've said before, a full bucket,
you often have more energy, more you know, I can find. If
you don't look after yourself, you're often more irritable. You've got more fatigue,
you know, exhaustion, You're not able to cope with perhaps the demands
of life or if somebody's struggling, it's harder to cope with that because you're
empty. It's an empty bucket. And so actually, when we're topped up,
and yes, there will be periods in life where it will be harder
to top your bucket up. But if you're topped up, it means you've
got more capacity to be able to deal and manage with life in a way
that doesn't just drain you. But actually, yeah, you can feel energized
by life, if that makes sense. Yeah, it's interesting actually the idea
that we'd feel that people do feel guilty because again, speaking to a few
people, it's like, and I know sometimes if I'm going to be really
honest with myself, I probably think that as well, because often you know,
I'm helping people, but you're so right in the sense of I'm not
sure how we can give of our best if we are, whether it's burnt
out, we're stressed, or simply just not practicing what we're preaching. And
I hold my hands up to that because I know I'm guilty of that.
So yeah, oh, okay, Pedro is just joining the building. Um,
okay, picture, I'll let you in a second. Um, looks
like he's starting outside, so we'll do that at a second. Um.
Yeah, it's just to just to pick it back on. Pay said that
says is the fuel that allows your life to shine and that's precisely why we
need to do it. We can't be our best we can't be our best
selves, we can't um and if we're tie in our biblical um sort of
principles, we can't fulfill God's purpose in our lives if we are not taking
care of ourselves. And that's I know you hit it to that earlier,
but that's biblical. It is. And and God rested, Jesus rested,
so you know, I I'm like, well, why then can't we rest?
That's that's so true, that's so true. M hmmm. And I
guess I guess part of it being crucial, I mean, I guess I
don't know whether I would say that we are living in a really fast pace,
fast paced life, and most of us are constantly busy, and I'm
sure when you ask people how they are, most people are saying too would
answer I'm really tired. Like you'll say, yeah, I'm fine, You'll
say you're fine, and then you're it'll be prefaced with actually, I'm really
tired. I've had a really hard week and what have you. So actually,
maybe it is crucial just to cope with the fast paced of life that
we're leading. I don't know if we've been we're busier than we've ever been,
or we have more I mean, I don't know, but I think
part of that is going to be it seems much more I don't know if
it's much more more essential than it's ever been. Is that because we're dealing
with more things or there's more things to stress us out? Yeah, which
is interesting, Which is interesting? So okay, so um, I'm going
to pause there for a second so I can let Pedo in and I apparently
we're not hearing you guys too well. So I'm going to play a next
piece of music. I'm gonna go with the Goodness of God with CC Whiners,
one of our favorites. We love this song on on our show and
really, m as we talked about, and it's a God given looking after
ourselves is so important, and you know, God is so good to us
that actually, you know, for us to kind of appreciate that and sort
of take the time to spend our time with him. With the Goodness of
God, So let me pop that one in. I love you, Lord,
for your mercy never fails me. All my DearS, I've been held
in your head from the moment that I wait until I leave my head.
Oh you will see of the goodness of God, because all my life you
have been faithful. Nor my life you have been so so good with every
breath that I am made. Oh, why you will see of the goodness
of God. I love your boys. You have led me through the fine
in darkest time. You are closed like No, I'm knowing you as a
fine. I've known you as a plan, and I have lived in the
goodness of God was all my line. You have been fair Oh yes,
no, my life you have been sore, so very that I am lame.
Boy. I will see of the good God. Your goodness is runny
enough. It's pretty knife to me. Your goneness is runny Enoughter, it's
runny enough to me with my life. Lane, now it's a render.
Now I give you a thing, the Lord. Your goodness is runny lifter's
kind enough to me. Your listen, my your donees is enough is run
to me with my life, lad, I get you an you're the missus
r R. No, my life you have been fairful. No, my
life, you have been sold soul with every breath that I am maybeble do
the say so when I the same so okay, so we're back. Goodness
of God CC wine. It's definitely a favorite of ours. Um, yeah,
I do love that song. I'm wrong, No, definitely and definitely
just as you know, as a reminder, just like I said, how
good God really is. And you know, even when and then Claire's case,
the doctors were telling her one thing, her belief in God had other
plans for her as well. So we were just talking about we're talking about
self care. If you're just joining us, thank you for joining us at
talking point. If you'd like to contribute to our program, we'd love to
hear from you. You can either text us on eight triple to eight right
hope and then your message, or you can email us on studio at Advantage
Radio London. And what we want to know is about your self care and
Sonny, what was your question which has got to complete question was what yourself
came into you? But yes, we're open to self care poptices, you
know in fact from Claire's story, I think, and so you'll have to
let me know in terms of your own clientell is that generally the case that
people come to our moments of self care after they've gone through maybe a crisis
or their own health scare or something like that. Is that what generally makes
people stop and assess and decide, Okay, this has to happen. It
does seem to be what I am seeing more of. It's almost like I'm
seeing people who are burning out or burnt out or have a chronic illness,
and it's like they come to a point where they're like they can't carry on
as they are and they need help and support in order to feel better.
And like, my aim is that we wouldn't get to that point. I
mean, obviously illness happens, but especially with burnout, that we wouldn't be
getting to that point that we'd recognize actually if we put these practices into place
before we get to that point, because as soon as we burn out,
it can take a while to recover from that. So it is finding that
balance. Yeah, and I think who has now official labeled bran out as
a classified bran out as an illness? Yeah, fast, that's happening over
here. Um, but yeah, that it's an official it's an official illness.
And um, so many of us I've forgotten the statistics. I'm gonna
have to pull them up again. But so many of us across the world.
I'm struggling with that particular issue. Yeah, definitely. And I and
it's something I've seen across my career and now you know, it's a nutritional
therapist is right now and it's just I probably I've had burnout, I know,
you know, part of my problems where with burning out and doing too
much and not recognizing that it was okay to look after myself so that I
could you know, not be depleted to the extent that I was. I
think I have perhaps all of us have been there. And the thing about
burnout you're not really knowing where you're headed until you've kit the wall. Yeah,
that's the thing. You know, you don't realize that you're going too
much and doing too much and all that kind of stuff till you inevitably crash.
And by that time, as you said, it takes a lot more
to undo what has been done rather than and it says a out of prevention.
So it's so much better to do what we have to do to prevent
that as opposed to getting there and having to undo the damage. Yeah,
definitely. An Interestingly, I've been talking about burnout on my social media this
week and you know, I've had people get in touch and gone, oh,
you've shared some of the symptoms, and actually I've got a few of
those, and I'm like, right, let's talk what can we do to
get you, yeah, back on track? And We're going to come to
that as well. But I was thinking, going back to what you were
saying about sometimes people not prioritizing or feeling guilty about the self care. How
could we kind of how can we help people to kind of get past that
because in some ways, like we keep going, and we keep going,
and we keep going until we suffer for burnout, till we just depleted no
energy, everything else. But I may still feel guilt tea for stopping and
resting. You know, the amount of times sometimes I've kind of said,
right, you know, my weekend comes, I have a busy week.
I will it full time. And I might say somebody, oh, you
know, people say what do you doing the weekend? I said, you
know what, I'm going to chill. I'm not going to do anything.
Really, that's such a waste of time. And I'm like, how could
that be a waste of time? You're almost guilted into that, And then
I think, oh, yeah, there's one hundred and one things that I
could be doing or I should be doing, but maybe I shouldn't, And
you keep going. So how can how can I get past? How could
somebody get past that? I do a feeling guilty. I think it's quite
challenging question because some of the guilt could come from previous experiences or how you
were brought up, or you know, it could be excell influences. So
sometimes I just strip it back to thinking. You know, if you saw
your best friend in front of you, and you saw her running ragged,
you know, not taking time, furself, not eating well, what would
you say to her? You'd probably saying, look, you need to take
some time, look at your diary, take out what you don't need,
chill out at the weekend. So if you say that to your best friend,
why are you not saying it to yourself? And it is you know,
if you keep burning yourself out again, I'm going to go back to
the car analogy. If your car, like yours, dead black battery,
you don't get very far do you if you're you know, I live in
a little village in the middle of nowhere, So if my car's not working,
I can't get to work or I can't. You know, I can't
go into the shopping well. I mean there are ways around that, but
you get drift. I can't get to church, for example, so I
have to make sure my car's being looked after. But if I if I
burn myself out, I can't go to work in the way I won't you.
I can't turn up for my clients or my family or my friends in
the way that I want to. I'm not going to be any good for
them. And so it's it's kind of trying to flip the script and try
and tell yourself instead of should I love the should voice if anyone, if
you ever hear the words should, that's like get rid of that should shoul
shouldn't be allowed, um. But it's it's reminding yourself that I am.
I am fearfully in wantfully made. You know, God made me. I
am valuable. I can look after myself. God God doesn't sit there going
no, you can't do that. You can't look after yourself. It's like,
no, my body is valuable. I can look after it. And
it's it's kind of reminding yourself of what God says about you and sort of
using that instead of feeling guilty, because um, you know, God isn't
about guilt and shame. God's about love, and actually he's like, yeah,
you're worthy your mind, you're valuable. Look after that pet. Good
afternoon, everybody. I'm sorry, Yeah, I'm sorry. I just joined
then. I'm sorry. I was quite in traffic. Um, yeah,
I was gonna say just say no. Yeah, why not? Just say
no, Just say no, and don't care what other people think, because
when it all comes down to it, when it all comes down to it,
if you don't take care of yourself, nobody else will. So the
point is that you can't worry about and I'm just going by experience, you
can't because everybody's different. So I'm talking about my opinion. But you can't
worry about what people are gonna say about you because if you do it,
they're gonna complain. If you don't do it, they're gonna complain. So
either way, just do what you feel is best for yourself and just say
no. Yeah, I mean that very tidy two letter words. That's the
hardest, that's the hardest. That's the I didn't say, like, listen,
I didn't say that it wasn't hard and I didn't say that those two
little words or that one word, or because no is easy to say.
But if you learn to do that, you could you could do a lot
of self care for yourself, because like you said, you know, you
say no, and then they said, oh, but why not? Oh
you know, you got time not doing nothing? What you mean, I'm
not doing nothing if I'm home, So what if I want to just sit
at home in my shorts and a T shirt. If that's what I want
to do, That's what I'm going to do. Especially in the church,
because you go to we work five days a week, we go to church,
we got cyber school, then you got service, and they want you
to do prayer, they want you to do praise team, they want you
to do tides and offering. They want you to do all these things,
and you're burning yourself out. But the other people sitting down doing nothing.
Yeah, and I don't mean it in that sense. Yeah, And I
don't mean it that. I don't mean it in that sense of like they're
not doing nothing, but the people that are telling you or you should do
it are not doing it themselves. Yeah. I don't know. Sorry,
where you wanted to go with this? But I think this is a very
good point or place to stop and talk about for self care isn't, because
that, I feel is where we get stuck um saying no. It's just
one aspect of um self care. And I think that's tied to this idea
of selfishness, and that's a crucial bit because we feel that being self care
could be selfish and it's not. We think that self care could be self
indulgents and it's not. You know, there's certain things that we tie to
that word self care that we need to debunk. It's those myths being it's
not selfish to say no. Yeah, it's not selfish at all to say
no if no works best for you, and the people around you and the
people who support you and the people who love you will understand and know,
yeah, will appreciate. And I hate yes when the person really didn't want
to do it or won't do it an honest no personally. Then for someone
to say yes and they're not wanting to, or they can't, or you
know, all of that other stuff. But that's another topic. But I
think that we need to maybe stop a while here, Andy and just kind
of break down some of the things that people tie to self care, which
really we shouldn't. Yeah, And I think also the idea sometimes and I
ask somebody this as well. You know, as a Christian, yes we
are, We're encouraged to serve, We're encouraged to help others. We are
our brothers, keeper, etc. Etc. But so if I then don't
do some of those things, or I've stepped back and I say no to
certain things, and I know for me, you know, taking it roles
within church and we talked about it, almost felt guilty because you're not doing
what you should be doing anything to serve. Well, I recognize my own
capacity. I have to set up my own boundaries. I can only do
so much. And you know what they're in theory. There are lots of
people who could be doing some to be doing some things in church. Often
it's often the same people, So why can't we spread it out a little
bit more? But you know, it's almost like, well, I have
to be a bit of a I feel like I have to be a bit
of a martyr, and that idea of kind of you know, this is
my ticket to salvation. Salvation via works is sometimes I don't think it's so
preached in that way, but sometimes we get the impression it could be,
you know, the more things we do, the more active I am within
church, the more roles that I have, you know, that's already helpful,
when actually that's probably sotripodentially so detrimental to yourself and those impacts around you,
family, friends, etc. You know, And as we've talked about
it at the beginning, is that then giving of our best you know we
are we've talked about you know, it says, you know, our bodies
are our temples and the way in which we look after that is a way
of worshiping. So all of those things kind of have it's a bit of
a contradiction in terms in some ways. So yeah, that's an interest,
that's very interest. A few months ago I was got a phone golf on
the pastor of my church and they say they are nominated me to do a
position in the church. And at first I was like, let me think
about it. And at first I was like, yeah, I could do
it, and I you know, thinking about it. And then as I
thought more and more and I realized my schedule with the wife the kids working
five days a week, I took I called them back and said no,
I no, I can't thank you for the nominate. But I can't because
I knew that if I took on that extra part in my duties, on
my part in my life, that it was going to burn me out.
So you know, I'm just gonna do a quick plug. It's a book
called kind is defined by O. C. Daniels, and the book is
is pretty much be kind, not nice. There's a difference in because see,
people think when you say no that you're being mean. No does not
mean that you mean no, means that means what it means no, yeah,
or like yourself is right, like if you say no. We got
such a stigma of the no word. The no has such a negative condentation
when you say no nowadays that that's why people don't want to say no.
They say yes, even like you just said and Xenia, they say no,
but you know they really don't want to do it, so they say
yes. But you can tell by their body language, by their whole meaner.
Oh, I really want to do but I'm just gonna say yes because
I don't want her to think bad about me. Right, well, yeah,
exactly, Um, and what about one of your thoughts on self indulgence
is self deier, self indungence. When I first heard the word, it's
become a buzzword now and as you say, Andrew, use it every day
and it's come to mean more. But when I first thought of self fier
self, it was a spa, you know, pardicure, manicure, you
know, it was a tree um if but one of those things you do
when you get some money or when you get some time, you'll take care
of yourself. But self care is, as we've set up the very top,
and the reason why we're talking about it today is in route of twenty
four seven that self care ought to be a lifestyle. You know, it's
not a one off. It's not a tree, it's not you know,
it's not an experience or a reward. It's it's it's a lifestyle. And
we've got to learn to live our lives in that fashion by taking care of
ourselves. And another thing I think that we sometimes I'm linking it to that
that we wore or aspect, is that we think self care could be too
expensive or and in fact, you know what and clear you can speak,
you can speak to that, but to to invest in ourselves can be expensive,
but I think it's money well spent. You know, um, yes,
it costs more to eat it well to eat healthy generally. I mean,
if you go fast food and you get something quick and swift, it's
generally not the best for you. You've got to you've got to spend to
get the vegetables and all that kind of stuff. And and you'll talk to
that bit more clear. But but this is money well spent, and we
can't just label it as expensive or you know, our waste of our resource
resources. We've got to make sure that we we we see self care as
an investment in ourselves and look at it as money well spent. And another
thing that I came across is that sometimes we think we think self care is
self reliance. You know that we we we can do it. That's what
we think self care is. We have we our own our own powerhouse,
we our own um sort of engine. But for us Christians, we definitely
definitely know that we we can't manage on our own. And self care is
a holistic approach and it involves support systems. It involves you know, having
a good network, It involves sort of exercise and diet, It involves it's
a whole dam out of things and a whole damout of people that can't work
in our lives to help us to take care of ourselves. And and it's
reciprocal, you know. We we give and we take, and that's that's
kind of how we keep a balance. We give to others, but there
should be people who give in to us so that we're not sort of depleted
and defeated like that. So these are some of the things that I saw,
and I thought, you know what, that's so true because we think
we have these things that we tie to self care that makes us think up
and we can't. We can't get into that so expensive. It's to that,
it's to this, but really it isn't it is. And I'm very
passionate about it. And I don't practice as I preach the same as Angie
says, but we have to because if we don't take care of us,
and I say all the time, if we don't put the mask on first,
then we certainly can't put the masks on others, and we certainly can't
be our best. So Claire, yeah, you can maybe tell us a
little bit, because that's a lot of what you do it's it's about advising
others to and I suppose within your company investing self. That's why they come
to you. It's about, you know, not thinking that it's something you
can do on your own, but you do have to get the counselor or
the therapist or whatever if it's needed, if you come to that point where
you think it's needed, and investing yourself. Can I ask a good question.
I'm sorry it was actually to that point. When it comes to self
care, we say self, but clear in your experience, is it better
to have somebody of like mind that will help you to do the self care?
Can you add that on too? You understand what I mean? Yeah?
Yeah, accountability, Yeah yeah, I do find that. So there's
kind of two points I wanted to make. So with self care, I
think there's different levels. There's the you know, I'm going to take five
minutes for myself to enjoy a cup of tea without my phone. You know,
I'm going to journal, I'm gonna you know, even read your Bible,
that sort of thing where you're actually taking time to kind of recharge.
And then there's kind of the other end where you are investing in yourself by
purchasing kind of services that you've just talked about, therapy or counseling, and
investing in yourself and investing in what you know eating well, like eating good
food, vegetables, fruit, etc. There is an investment there, but
actually it pays back in the long term. And and you know what you've
just asked their pedrew. I think there is something about countability. I have
clients who know exactly what they need to do, but sometimes it's hard,
especially with all everything that's out there about diets. You know this diet,
that diet works for you, And I'm very much it depends on the person
in front of me. I work with the person in front of me.
But some people just get so overwhelmed with all the information that actually coming to
somebody like myself, I literally just strip it down into write what can you
manage? What is achievable for you? Because sometimes it's about baby steps.
If someone can make smaller steps of change, they're going to have bigger changes
in the long run. So I very much like that with my clients,
and some clients need that. They just need it broken down and it's the
smallest steps than someone walking with them going right, We're going to get you.
I'm going to get you to this point, and then once you get
there, you're going to have more tools in your tool box and you're going
to be able to carry on. And sometimes people just need a strategy,
a plan of action to get them so far, and then they're like once
they're so far, you know. So for myself, I don't feel that
I need help with my diet because of everything that I've learned. And I
do see there are times where, especially kinds of high stress, that I
will start, you know, perhaps not eating as well as I could do,
but I have enough knowledge to go hang in a second, stop this,
now, let's get back on it. But for example, I'm going
to use I have help with my business because I still you know, I'm
still new in business. I'm still learning what business means, what it looks
like. So I need to go and get accountability with someone else. And
it's the same sort of principle, you know, Yes, that's for my
business. I invest in that because I want to be the best that I
can be for my clients. And it's the same sort of thing. You
know, you invest in support and help so that you can be the best
that you can for yourself, your friends, your family, for church,
etc. Okay, so for somebody who was starting out then with you class,
somebody would come to you what a kind of you've mentioned about that you
strip it right down. So what kind of things would you then encourage somebody
to do? I mean do people come with specific things? I e.
So whether it's to do with their nutrition or weight, or is it,
as you've said, you work quite holistically. Is it somebody who comes to
you? Do you know what, I'm burnt out, I'm tired, I'm
stressed, I need help with everything. Where do you kind of you know,
what kind of things? What does that look like? And where do
you start you know with that? What kind of things? Then? You
know, what are the simple things that they start with that you would start
with them with. I mean there's all sorts like so it usually is there's
a goal. I want to lose weight, I want to be healthy,
I want to be fitter. I look after individuals with chronic illness. Is
sometimes as I want to feel and have more energy. So there's a kind
of combination of fact is why people come to me. So what I do
is I do a kind of length the you know, we talk through,
Okay, what are you feeling right now? What are you presenting with that?
Look at your health history, and then that gives me a really good
picture of actually what is going on behind the scenes. And then once I've
looked at what's going behind the scenes, and I look at what they're currently
eating, and they're life start. It's not just about diets, about are
you sleeping properly, are you moving your body or in a way that's right
for you. I then sort of meet them with their goals. To say
it was to lose weight, I'd be like, right, let's look at
what you're currently eating. If you tweak your diet to do this, let's
start with say, right now, I think you need to eat more vegetables.
Right, let's put in more vegetables. I think you need to move
your body. But it's working with the client because if they're like, I
don't want to exercise right now, I'm like, well, I'm not going
to force you. I can tell you it's beneficial, and I can tell
you the reasons why, but I've also got to work with you. So
it's very much the person in front of me. What do I feel is
the most pressing need? Right now. And most of the time we start
with diet because actually, once I get people eating more balanced, they find
they have more energy, and then they're able to tackle other things. And
there's a lot it's not just about diet. A lot of what I do
is mindset and behavior. It's like, sometimes it's coaching people to almost unlearned
behaviors that are that are habits that aren't habits that are serving them, but
are just habits that are there for that they've just done for years, and
it's almost starting to unpick why do you do that? Right? Can we
put something better in place for you that means that you can eat better,
you can have the energy for example that you want to have. Another clients
that you see have they specifically come to you because they've looked at themselves,
So like, how do they you know? Because sometimes I think to myself,
you know, what are the kind of warning signs that somebody might be
neglecting their own self care? Is that's something that they recognize themselves, or
they may have come to you for one specific thing, and then once you
start to unpack it, you're just like, oh, things are really aren't
looking that good at all. Because I guess, you know, for our
listeners. You know, unless you've let you mentioned about the mindset, less
you're really thinking about that, then you might seek at someone like yourself.
But what could be the warning signs, you know somebody, is that you
as somebody, you're neglecting your self care or actually things could be much better.
And so I guess it's various. So I'll just run through a list.
I get through different things. But you know, often clients come to
me, you know, say, for example, they're like, I want
to lose weight, but actually when we're talking, they're like, oh,
but I'm getting bloated after eating, I'm sluggish. I find that I can't
go a couple of hours without food, I don't have energy. I'm snacking
late at night. And I'll be like going, okay, these are all
things that are going to impact your ability to lose weight. But there's other
things going on behind the scenes. You're not eating a balanced diet, so
therefore you're struggling with your energy levels as a consequence. Things like in terms
of burnout, what I would see people saying that they've got a short temper
if if they tell me that they shout at their children, for example,
a lot more than they want to. It's often it's oftener. I don't
like myself doing it, but I find myself doing it. They find that
they're becoming isolated, they're withdrawing from society, they don't have an interest in
hobbies. These are all sort of warning signs of actually you're becoming quite withdrawn,
apathetic, dick. You're not managing you know, you've perhaps got compassion
fatigue for example, decision fatigue, or you're just you're struggling to make decisions.
You're struggling to deal with life because actually you're just exhausted. And fatigue
is a big one that I see in clients. And fatigue is that exhaustion
beyond so so you have a good night's sleep, if you're tired, you
have a good night's sleep, you should feel better. But if you have
fatigue, it's like you have a good night's sleep and you wake up and
you just are dragging yourself out of bed. Everything's heavy, everything feels like
you're walking through treacle. You perhaps got brain fog, you know that just
sense of everything's foggy. I can't think straight, you know, I can't
process information anywhere I want to, and I mean menopause also has an influence
on that too. Just as a side note, So a lot of times
people will give me this, you know what they're struggling with. Then I
can go, right, well, this looks like it could potentially be the
gut. This could be, you know, shines that your liver needs a
bit of help. This could be signs that your your stress is a lot
of the time it's a stress system. It's just tired and overworked and needs
a break. Thank you, very wow. I am so relating to so
many of those things that you're just saying that I put my hand but you
see, but say, hear you say that I know those things, and
I guess it's going that's you know, I think for myself. I talk
for myself. It kind of goes very up and down. I have periods
where it's just like all of those things. Thankfully, I do have that
knowledge that I can kind of, you know, get it together. I
have done various things, but it's therapy having a coach where have you,
because I think having somebody that, as you've said, to be accountable to,
or somebody you can just kind of help you do those things. Because
interesting is you know, things like decision, you know, struggling to make
decisions, or you're just tired. Somebody else helping you with that, Yeah,
you know can be that sort of kickstart, can be that thing to
kind of get you through. So hmm, okay, give me lots of
think about there any other thoughts on that, Petro, No, Okay,
we're gonna go for that piece of music. It's a good break. We're
gonna go to um Kurt, car I almost let go because sometimes that's where
it feels that way. But you know, with help and by God's grace,
we still can make it through. So I almost let go. Car.
Yes, So I wouldn't let go. Anybody in here ever felt like
giving up, just throwing in the towel, just giving up. I'm not
gonna ask you to hunt anybody, but just look at them. That person
you're looking at is here to night only because of God's mercy and is grace.
Somebody only just tell God, thank you for your mercy and your grace
set kept me most. I felt like I just could take life a bold
m Mys had me down, should wake me down? God he close,
so I wouldn't. God's mercy can't Can I get a witness in here?
So I wouldn't let I almost gave up most gay, I was right the
edge of a break, could see tell really hang. But Jess came and
grab and dre So I wouldn't. God's versy keptain God's very Can I get
a witness in here that knows about God's grace? So I'm here today?
Gra Why so I come on? Hunt somebody next year? To him?
I was really down. I was really down. The devil really happened.
But God's versy kept me. I'm here tonight because of God's mercy. Come
on, don't just thank him? Just thank him? I Oh, let
cool. I feel like I just couldn't take a life. Uni more my
problems happy now? Good? Russia down? God help me? Oh,
I wouldn't let go God, I see, so I wouldn't go. I
can be a you. I don't know what I and how I went.
Not Russian had so far down that I didn't know who. Yeah, but
it to become a ch that's the soul of MoMA. Yeah, okay,
I almost let go. By care cars. So we've been talking about self
care and the idea that self care is incredibly crucial especially in the fast paced
life that we're living in, society that we're living in. We talk a
little bit about how we can you know, why it's important, what the
kind of signs that we could be just talked about, spoke about the signs
that you could be neglecting your own self care. So I guess what we
want to kind of go into a bit more now is just kind of what
kind of things can we do. We've got Claire from Nourish Ticket to Saw
and Claire Actually, well, I think about it. How did your name
come about? Azariah forty thirty one. Those that hope in the Lord will
renew their strength, they will saw on wings of eagles. They will run
and not grow weary. And when I had chronic fatigue syndrome, I lived
by this because I knew that one day I would run and not grow weary.
Oh that's wonderful. That's one of my That's my favorite text actually,
that one. So yeah, so yeah, I love that. Yeah.
And I'm actually often looked at that to kind of interesting when you know,
I'm feeling really tired or feel like I can't keep going. M Yeah,
that and and I shan't say the other one as well where it says you
know, Jesus will uphold with his righteous right hand, because I kind of
feel that he's going to scoop me up and help me. What have you?
So? Oh no, I love that nourish to sw Yeah, that's
cool, that's cool. So I guess we've been talking about self care and
what we can things, you know, why we will do this? So
what kind of things and practices? Now we've all mentioned a couple of things
there, but what are some self care practices that you would encourage somebody to
do? Now if somebody comes to you with a specific concern or need there
maybe you know, things like you said around your diet or possible exercise,
But are there any other things that can really Yeah, because I guess there's
I mean, when I was thinking about self care also, I was thinking
about you know, there's obviously your emotional self care that you can look at.
Somebody described to me, you know, self care being really impactful on
your own mental health and well being. And from a spiritual perspective, you
know, God wants to kind of speak to us, and you know,
we want our minds to be open so that we can readily hear him but
it's also our physical self care and also I suppose to self care as well.
So what kind of all of those So I guess you know, what
kind of self care practices you know can we suggest to our self listeners as
well? Um, I mean, I'm going to take the example of my
morning routine and where I would always say, start small, start with what
you can manage. So for me, my morning routine, I get up,
I stretch, so I have sometimes stretching, so I'm moving my boy.
Do I go and feed the chickens? Okay, grunted. Not everyone
can go and feed the chickens, granted, But I get outside. I
get outside for five minutes. I go and feed my chickens and I take
some time breathing like as I do that, I like to sit and watch
them for a bit, and then I pray, I read my Bible and
I journal. So within all of those practices, I'm getting outside. If
you get outside within, you know, as early as possible, it helps
with sleep. Actually, so later on and sleep it's you know, if
we get enough sleep, that's going to help with our ability to look after
ourselves. I've got into nature. Being with nature can help, you know,
listening to bird sounds, just being being still, like be still,
I know that I am God. I always come back to that one.
You know, I'm just sit there for a moment in you know, whatever
weather is watching my chickens, but it's I'm surrounded by quiet. Obviously,
it depends where you live. Grunted the journaling, I think sometimes I get
I get what I call spaghetti brain or busy brain. And actually, by
journaling and putting my thoughts onto paper, they're not stuck in my head.
So it's going to help me. Like, especially with lots of I have
a lot to juggle with different things that I'm doing, and I find,
in fact, my brain's too busy. I can't manage to juggle everything.
So actually by writing stuff down and then making sure I'm going to the Bible
because I want to feed myself spiritually as well as you know, yes,
I get a good breakfast, I should point that out. I get a
good breakfast too. You know, Am I eating a balanced breakfast? Am
I making sure I'm not just eating, for example, something like sugary cereal,
But am I eating something that's got a good balance of protein, whole
whole grains like you know healthy fats have I got that sort of really good
balance which is going to keep me fuller for longer and keep me concentrating and
productive. So whilst that seems like quite a lot of different things, it's
about taking what you need to do, focusing on one thing at a time,
doing it for a couple of weeks, and then building on it.
So this is taking me years to get to this point, but it is
about starting small. So could you just say, stretch for five minutes,
move your body? Could you do five minutes of journaling? If you're someone
that if you think of journaling, it's got to be for hours. It's
like, no, get a timer, five minutes, don't think about what
you're writing, and just write and see what happens. You know, it's
all those little things you know that actually will build up and just keep building
and then yeah, you'll find that you are giving yourself that time. Well,
it's interesting, as you said that, one of the things when I
speak to my students, I always say to them be realistic, Like,
you know, as much as I will be encouraging all these different self care
practices, I'm just like be real I could digest I'm always saying, you
know, I could suggest one hundred and one different things, but I'm not
expecting you to try all of them possibly, but be realistic about what you
could do. I'm all for encouraging them to try new things or different things,
maybe step outside your comfort zone, but be realistic with what you're trying
to do, you know. And as you said, you don't necessarily have
to write in a journal for hours and hours. You know. I may
say, you know, sometimes I may suggest some journal prompts. It could
be three things you're thankful for, or a couple of things you're grateful for,
or what have you achieved or what have you? You know, But
like you said, start small and be realistic, because I think I'm all
for setting goals, but if your goals are unrealistic, you're almost setting yourself
for failure before you've even started. And I think sometimes, you know,
when you're trying new things, trying to incorporate new habits, and they say
it text at least twenty something days to you know, to imprint that and
keep that going. Yes, it's really important and also something that's really going
to make sense within your own life and lifestyle, you know. And I
think sometimes that could be a reason why sometimes people don't necessarily stick to something
because it's just not realistic. It's not something that they would naturally do,
as much as you are trying to change the habit. So yeah, generally
is a good one. Breathing, definitely, And it's quite interesting sometimes.
I know when I've suggested that people are like, yeah, but I breathe,
and you're like, do you Yes, we're breathing because we're alive.
It's seeking fun to be but actually real intentional breathing, you know, And
there's obviously different types in terms of how many breaths you best you take in,
how long you're holding it for, but really focusing on the breath.
And I love the idea that you're sitting in quiet as well. I think
I remember it's one of the things that I really noted during COVID and we
were we were forced to the pandemic, we were forced to sometimes being at
we were forced to be in our houses spend time. I really noted how
much of the bird song I really heard and how much at she know,
we woulday, yeah, we get at you know, they're encouraging you to
get out into nature, go for a walk, but because everything was much
quieter than it would possibly normally be, we were noticing a lot more and
I'm sure lots of people probably benefited from that with probably without even realizing,
you know. So yeah, good, there's some good practical steps there.
Send you any other ideas on self gear practice, anything that you've done yourself
or that you could encourage somebody to do, just as I you mentioned with
COVID. And I know it was an awful time for so many reasons,
but that quiet I mean, I really treasured it, and so many people
did the opportunity to bond with their families and things like that, And what
I would want to suggest is that people pull what worked from that time and
keep it going, because there's nothing to stop us from setting aside, a
Sunday afternoon or whatever it is, for making pizza and bread. Oh did
the flower and the wheat yeas come off the shelves quite good. Everybody was
bread making, everybody was banking, all that kind of stuff. These are
good practices, you know, and there's no reason why we have to stop
doing them. Cycling together as a family, you know, saying no to
the noise distractions too even I mean I had people get quite upset with me.
I mean it was for health reasons that I said that we weren't going
to accept visitors. But it was nice to just be still, be here,
be without the fuss. And I know people are going to get faxed
when I say that, but it was it was nice. I enjoyed it.
Not everybody did, and it's not for everyone. And that's again why
we say self care is a personal thing, and it's it's it's an evolving
thing even and because where you are now, it's not necessarily where you'll be
in five years from now. And the practices that you put in place now
may not five next five years. So it is an evolving thing. So
just keep an eye on that and some of the other stuff. And I
really like what you said about being making it achievable and realistic, because that
is my issue. I know what I should do, and often I put
in place things, but I just don't keep it up. I am inconsistent.
I mean, bring me the New Year every year, and I've got
a couple of things that I'm gonna do. In fact, two years ago
a self care year for my family, my sisters and I always be dubbed
it self Care Year. It's going to be all about the SPA, the
health tips. So this is about the other And by February so yes,
so love. You know, we were exhausted. We were back on the
same train we were on, you know, a year ago. And I
think that is my problem saying no, not so much of an issue,
but sticking to the things that I know good for me. I struggle with
that and that's why I said at the top of when I started, you
know what, maybe it is about scheduling those things that we know we ought
to do, set aside the time, carve the time out, make the
time and put it in our schedules or whatever it might need to be,
reminders, etc. So that we stick to it. Because that's that's nice
too. I don't stick I have not stick it tuitivities. I guess there's
something in that is there. And it's interesting when we talk about sometimes there
is that notion that we don't have time for self care. And actually,
you know, very simple time management exercise would be to really kind of take
your average day or average week. I really look at how you spend your
time. I mean, we know we have twenty four hours in a day.
Really, that's plenty enough time to do most things. Things probably either
take longer than we think it will do, or if they don't take as
long as you think it will do. And there's probably a lot of and
I say this really carefully time wasting, you know. And again it depends
on what those things are. So not saying any specific activity is a time
waster, but there probably is. But you know, and I'm certainly not
then suggesting that you schedule every second, every minute down to a tea,
unless you're that sort of person, But actually there probably is time to spend
five minutes. Five minutes really isn't that long. And once you start to
get into the practice of that, and if it's something that really works for
you, before you know it, you could be doing half an hour of
exercise and it's no big deal, you know. And like you said,
if you if you're starting a practice, it may mean like I, sometimes
they are programs that I want to hear on the radio and I have to
set an alarm. It's who I am. I know who I am.
I have to set an alarm to remind me to plug into the radio to
listen to it. But after a while it gets a part of me and
I don't need the alarm anymore. So sometimes it's how you start. You
start by scheduling at ten to five every morning, you set your alarm.
You're gonna wake up, You're gonna stretch. That's something you may have to
do. And then after a while, you want me to set the alarm
your body. You'll wake up, you'll stretch, you the kind of thing.
So these are the things that you may have to start doing to implement
them into your routine. And then once you've got going, then you may
not need to do all that. But it really is for me, the
consistency, And that's why it may take an alarm, and it takes a
reminder on my calendar, et cetera, et cetera, post it not on
my screen, whatever it may be, just to prompt me to do the
things that I need to do. And when you spoke about having accountability partners,
someone who might call me and say, you know what, do you
want to go for a run today? I write today, whatever the case
might be. So it's putting those things you know yourself, you know what
you'll need to put in place to help you to be consistent. In that
journey because by certainly I can't do it at all, you know, family
going and I'm still all I need to do. But it is a journey
and it's a process, and I think, sorry I was going to say,
I think it's also recognizing how you feel as a consequence of doing their
action and holding onto that. So one thing that I've actually developed in the
last few months is Sabbath practice. I know you guys do do that,
which is awesome, but we're actually doing Sabbath now. So Saturday nights for
us, it's the meal they switching our phones off for twenty four hours.
And actually I have taken such value in that and actually turning my phone off
and having that disconnection from the demands of the world. And yes it does.
It has taken real like what's the wor commitment to doing it, Like
I've really had to think about it, But actually I've seen how much I
feel better for doing it. So now when I think about it, I'm
actually I look forward to switching my phone off on a Sunday and actually it's
like it's it's been life giving for me. I think when we really connect,
you know, by having those even if it's starting with those five minutes.
I have those five minutes, I feel that I'm not shouting at the
kids so much, for example, or I feel more productive, or I
have more energy, you know, whatever it is, if you can really
figure out how much better it makes you feel and capture that. I think
every time you don't do it, it's like reminding yourself, if I do
this, it will make me feel better. And I think often I'm sure
people are surprised as well that actually so something like you know you mentioned about
switching off your phone for twenty four hours or not checking it is often what
have you? The act? She's going to make a huge impact on your
life because you're doing something so redically different. Actually, why don't you start
doing it in the ground scheme? Sometimes it really doesn't make a lot of
difference, you know, Um, I mean change back the amount of plant
that especially are young people, the amount of plan they spend on these gadgets
and on these screens. I mean, yeah, doing that will give them
a whole day. But to do something more productive perhaps or whatever. M
That's what I was are you going to ask me? I was going to
ask you, Pedro about your own self care practice of what you would do.
Because the funny that Zer said that because one of the things my wife
and I do, as Zenya said about the pandemic. As bad as it
was, it was actually a blessing in disguise for my wife and I because
it allowed us to stop and realize some of the things that we was doing
that was hurting our marriage and also hurting ourselves and one of those sub kids
that we do like with our kids. So like a forty five, we're
still we're still working on it's not all the way. There's baby steps,
but a forty five everything goes down. Because we had worship at nine,
So I told him, fifteen minutes before, you need to take everything down,
turn off everything, put your phone down, put I turn off the
TV. And if we just sit there and don't do nothing, just let
your brain breathe, that is better than because you know, you can't be
looking at TV and then turn off the TV and go right into worship.
You know, just kind of meditate. And sometimes so for the fifteen minutes
we'll sit there, we'll just talk and laugh with each other and make jokes
with each other before we start worship. And I find that to be so
therapeutic family. For I forgot the word for our health, for our well
being, because it just allows us to relax and then we can have worship.
And then the worship is part of the self care, but it's as
a family, but we're all self caring for each other doing the worship.
And so that's like one that's some of the things that that's one of the
things that we do as a family. I myself personally find for like for
my self self care. I'm really bad, Like I've stopped. I used
to eat at night all the time. My wife just said to me the
other day, I see you don't got no snacks in your drawer because I
just put snacks in my jawer and like one o'clock, two o'clock in the
morning, I'm eating some cookies. I'm eating a cake or something. You
know. My wife would be like, oh, you guys, stop doing
that. I'm like, but I'm hungry. So I've now baby steps.
I stopped little by little and now I could be like last night I was
hungry, but just when it got a glass of water and I was able
to make it. The morning, I didn't I didn't eat anything, which
normally in the past, I would have been sucking down out of it,
you know what kind of stuff. You know, So it just takes,
like you said, just take determination takes. You just have to consistently repetitious.
You have to keep doing it and do it and doing it. And
if you keep doing it, it's almost like brain muscle. Your brain automatically
allows you to to do what you need to do for self care. M
I And one other thing I always I think I've said this before, like
when I work, I drive a lot. So when I get home,
I will park my car outside and I won't get out of my car right
the way. I would literally sit in my car for ten fifteen minutes before
I walk into the house. The kids will see me because we have a
ring so they can see me in the front, and they get My son
would look out his windows see me in the back and he'll see me sitting
there in the car, and I waved to him, and I'll still sit
in the car and I and during that time, I just out of out
of journal, but I just decompressed. I just kind of just let myself
think about everything that went on to the day, and it was anything that
bothered me. I just say, okay, y'all, let that go.
And then I just kind of mentally prepare myself to walk into my house because
when you're walk into my house, it's like, you know, the kids
are running and died, the girls are running, give me a hug,
hide that, you know, so I have to like. So that's for
me, that's a that's my way of self care because that way, I
don't walk in and I'm all um, high up in an atmosphere from the
day and now I gotta deal with with you know, with the family.
So I feel like if people was to do that, it would help a
lot of people, specially men when they come home. For any women,
but I'm just talking about for myself as a man, that it would definitely
help if you was to just take some time before you in between, if
that makes sense. So if I'm work to home, or even sometimes from
home to work, before you're going to work, take a few minutes before
you go into work. You know, we have it running late. We
gotta get to work. You you're rushing, you're dropping everything. You got
your drink overhead, you know, your bag over here, and you're rushing
into work and then you you're bombarded, and then now you're over Now you're
over stimulated. You can't think. Yeah, yeah, that's my time management.
It's such an important subcre too. Yeah yeah, well you know everywhere.
But you know this the funny thing, right, if you're late,
are you already? If you're late, why are you rushing? You're already
late? They're serious. If you're late, why are you rushing? You're
later ready? If you let your late, it's not gonna listen, it's
not gonna change nothing. If I'm running late, I'm running late. I'm
gonna be late. Guess how late you actually want to be? But I
hear it's talking about that's the point. How late you're gonna be doesn't make
a difference. If you're ten or fifteen minutes late, Does it really make
a differences? No, don't see that's the story. Listen with my job,
Okay, you know what, maybe because my job, I drive around
to different homes and I get stuck in traffic all the time, so sometimes
i'm late. So I get phone calls sometimes that they'll be like, oh,
yeah, you're supposed to be at eleven o'clock. I'm like, yeah,
I'm in traffic. Well, you're supposed to be eleven o'clock. Again,
I'm in traffic, so I'm late. What do you want me to
do? Would you like me to you know, do like um um Booso
might Booso mighty the movie where he moved the cards and they had to pass
straight path. I can't do that, so guess what. I'm late.
If I'm late, I'm late. I will get there when I get there.
And it's just what it is. So it's like, that's self care.
Yeah, yeah, you can't justus. Do you know if you're running
the rain, you'll get wetter if then if you walk, really, yes,
if you run to try if you're interest raining one day, if you
run where people running the rain, they actually get wetter. But if you
just walk in the rain, you won't get his wet. Interesting, That's
that's what I'm saying. If you don't, if you just take your time,
you'll still get to the destination. No, I'm just saying, if
you take your time and think of yourself, you will still get to your
destination. That's true. But what I wanted to pick up actually, what
you were saying about your family. Self care really isn't just as much as
it's important for ourselves as individuals. You highlighted a really key point there,
because it extends to our families, to our workplaces, with our colleagues,
and I suppose ultimately with our communities. So I guess that's the question to
everybody, how can we kind of create a culture of self care that benefits
everybody? And I guess this sort of links in now. I sometimes sometimes
we're out and about and there are times what I think people are so selfish,
they're really looking out for themselves, and whilst we're talking about self care,
there's I guess there's kind of suppose a fine line between that. Yes,
it's about looking at for people, looking looking after yourself, but we
don't want to be selfish because you want to you want to impact positively for
people. So you know, how can we encourage that more? You know,
that sort of culture of self care. That's not like a question for
Claire. Yeah, you took about the benefits of your family and also the
things that you're doing for yourself, decompressing for your day so you can be
the best person for your family. So there's kind of a knock on effect
and then you're doing things for family as well. So actually, I think
if you the way we do it in my family, I think it shows
to other people we don't have to do nothing. We just keep doing it
the way we're doing it, and automatically it automatically shares other people. I
was telling my kids the other day. We did a lesson and it was
about a fire and the embers, you know how they pop out and they
start a fire. And I was telling them that if we have the fire
of God in us, then the ambers were just spread out and then people
were people. People will catch fire from us because they will see that we
have God in our lives, and then they will wonder why you that way?
Yeah, and then they'll think. And a case in point, my
daughter has friends come over and whenever they come over, we act the same
way we do that if we was with nobody was in the house, and
end of the day the friends are like, Oh, I just love your
family. They're so cool, they're so you know, like, and so
you just be yourself and and it deserves and keep doing the self care that
you need for your family, and then people. I think people will see
that because there's no you can't if you go to tell somebody, Oh you
should do this, then they're going to say, shut up, you don't
know you're talking about. So if you just lead by example and do it,
people have more of a tendency to then pay attention because then they're wondering,
why are you that way? Okay, yeah, because people are nosy
and pokey. Yeah that interesting? Yeah, clear, Any thoughts on that?
Um? Yeah, what Patrick? What Patrick said exactly what I was
thinking. I think sometimes it's about being a role model. They're actually going,
this is what I'm doing, and then people seeing they're kind of fruit
from what you're doing. So as you invest in yourself, you look after
yourself. Perhaps you're not it's irritable, Perhaps you're more productive. Perhaps you
are able to turn up for your colleagues or your family or your friends in
a different way because you've got more capacity to listen to them when they're when
they're struggling, for example. And I think people see that and they go,
oh, well, and you talk about, oh, you know,
I've been putting this self care routine into practice, and they're like, oh,
oh, I see that it's made a difference for you. Perhaps I'll
try it for myself. And they see a different and then they begin to
see the difference as too. Yeah, I mean definitely well being in the
workplace, and then you might be able to speak to this as well being
in hr that that seems to be quite a I'm going to say a thing,
but they're really they're getting that's something that's being really highlighted a lot,
you know, because you know, mental health difficulties seem to be on the
rise. There's been a lot definitely a knock on effect from you post pandemic,
so you know, looking after people's well being because I'm sure studies will
show that if your people's well being are good, people will be more productive,
I'll be more beneficial, you know, they'll take less sick days,
that kind of thing. So you know, it's only going to benefit everybody
in the long run. And I think, like you said, Claire,
role modeling and especially you know, so things like you know, practice that
managers do. I'd like to think it starts from the top down and influences
that's going to really make a difference to kind of have that kind of we're
talking about culture or that environment that is going to be conducive to good well
being and you know, help with your mental health, So there's any of
any thoughts on that as well. But you've said it, you know,
it starts at the top and it trickles down and it's it's as the head
goes, you know, and a lot of it as as you've said from
covid E such the fallout has been so significant that is to put it back
on the agenda or more on the agenda mental health, wellness, holistic approaches
to work and the work culture. There's a lot going on around that sphere
and there's a lot of resources so people can Top Mind is doing part bit
on that as well, So there is a lot out if anybody wants to
get that agenda going, there are resources to doing it. And obviously there
is so much to say about what value it brings to the workplace. This
is not a new thing. We know if you if you're healthier, if
you're happier, you'll produce more. And some people only look at the bottom
line, So then you have to show them the correlation. You have to
show them that it makes sense dollars and cents, pounds and pence to be
able to prioritize wellness in the workplace and making it a culture. You know,
maybe start a lunch club where at lunch time the office goes for walk
you know, cycle to work schemes where where persons can get discounts for getting
cycles through the workplace and cycling to work as opposed to driving. So putting
these little and it's little steps, same way as we do it in our
personal lives. It's little steps, little little slightly introducing them into the agenda,
not overwhelming anyone, but introducing them slowly, slowly into the agenda and
slowly changing the culture. Because that's it's a little step, but it goes
a long way. As you said in the very beginning, Claire, Um,
and we can make those differences, and it starts at HR runs usually
UM champions it, but it's not an HR as you we all have to
get involved. Yeah, I think that is key because it is it is
a collective. And when we're thinking about how you can impact the word of
communities as well, you know, self care could also be things like and
I know, volunteering, you know, because those things can either when you're
helping others that can help you feel good about something as well, where you're
giving back to society, where you're sharing your skills, your talents or your
knowledge, that kind of thing. So there's lots of different ways that you
can do that, you know. I think self care has many forms.
And if you get pushing pushing back on people who don't don't see as useful
and making the correlation for those people who only see the figures, you know,
all that kind of stuff, because there's some some places where it's it's
frowned upon if you take a break, a decent break, or take a
holiday, or you leave on time and all those things that you know,
we've made a part of our culture, perhaps working from from dust to dawn
and burning the midlight oil and all that kind of stuff. These are things
that we want to do away with. It's good to take break, good
to take holidays, you know. So you've got to change the mindset.
You've got to change the verbiage. You've got to you've got to get the
momentum going. And as I said, little steps, little things that can
do her. Yeah, we're gonna take their music break heres, we're coming.
Oh shoot swiftly to the end of the show. It was amazingly how
much how quickly our show goes. Pedro You've got to shoot off, so
you've got a long drive ahead of you. Oh of course, yes,
yes, my wife has to do something, so I'm taking her down.
That's why we came down. Also, I came from talking point because of
course, of course are you leaving after the break? I'm leaving after the
I guess can I put you on the hot spot? Then? Before you
go? Was that? And to ask you, um, do you think
that self care changes for men? And Claire maybe you can talk to that
after. But do you think that the self care approach for a man differs
to that other woman? Of course? Yeah, yeah, because Claire Claire
made a point about it already, just in the fact that when a woman's
you know, menopause, I think justin women's bodies go through so much more
um things that men's bodies doesn't go through, um and in the self um
that makes it a little difficult for a male. Of self care is definitely
very important because if if I don't self care myself or take care of myself,
um, who's gonna help my Who's going to support my family? So
I have to think of self care as as something is almost being selfish.
You have to think of self care almost for myself, so that I can
make sure that I can provide for or do what I need to do for
my wife and kids and you know, and whoever else I'm dealing with UM
for myself personally. Self cares um an important part of life because if I
don't self care myself, then I can have a mental breakdown. I can
um become aggressive, I could become um just not a nice person. Because
that moment when you stay, the moment where you stay out the door or
stay sort of on the on the comc or whatever, on the on the
pavement. I said in my car, so I couldn't find the web.
Yeah, I said in my car before going into the house. Is that
the moment where if you don't do that, then it's a different you in
the house. Is that It's nothing, it's a different me. It's more
just that it it just because you got you got to see, like I
don't take work to I don't take work home and I don't take home to
work. So I break it up when I leave my house on page your
work and when I come home on page your home. So because if I
bring in my work, like if I come in from work and my wife
will tell you this. If I come in from work and I'm like,
this happened, that happened, then I get my wife upset. Now both
of us are set, and then it's crazy to me sound because we're both
upset. Then we can have a stupid argument because we're both upset and not
even know what we're arguing about. And it was sitting there like, wait,
why are we arguing about? So like I come home and I think
about whatever made me upset, or I think about whatever how my day went,
and I let it go. I just literally tried to let it go.
I don't always succeed in letting it go. Don't make that clear,
but I do try to let it go. And if I have an issue
at home, I don't take it to work because that work is not gonna
help me. Yeah, it's only gonna you know, because my job,
I go into people's home, so I have to be polite. Well I'm
naturally I think I'm naturally polite, but I mean, you know, you
understand. I mean, like, I have to be courteous and respectful and
professional. So if I have these thoughts in my head what's happening at home,
and I go in there with this attitude that doesn't look good on the
company all myself. So I have to let that go and for the moment,
you know. So, I just think when you think of self care,
I think there is a little bit of selfishness involved when it comes to
men for me personally for me, because if you're gonna mess with my self
care, then I don't have nothing to do with you, if that makes
sense, and I'm just being honest. If you if you're gonna mess with
my self care, then then you can step because you're not my friend and
I don't need you around because my self care is more important because if I
don't take it, like I said, if I don't take care of myself,
nobody else will not. Even my wife will take care of me the
way I can take care of myself. And my wife takes care of me
very well. By the way, she's in the other room. Actually she's
not in here, so I don't try get no brownie points. But that's
question because we were talking about that before and how age and stage and gender
and culture can effect um at one self care and just wanted your take on
every were you real quick? I'm sorry? Yeah, because you're right about
that, because now that I'm at this age, I'm almost fifty, it's
definitely different. When I was in my twenties, I didn't I selfcare flew
out the window. I just do what I did. I didn't care.
I just I just I was like I was like a race car doing one
hundred and twenty down down, down the straight away. You know. I
was just like, oh, so I'll be all right. Because you're young,
you think you're impervious, you think you're powerful, you think you're superman.
You're just like, oh, I can do it. I can know.
But now as you get older, you realize, oh, the body
don't work like that. So then you have to start thinking, Okay,
I need to take this slow, I need to do it. This is
different, I need to you know. So it does with age and experience
and maturity. The self care does change through the decks of your of your
life. And I guess there was that perception of what men are like as
well. And you know, with you know the emotional side of things,
or you know, mental health, you know the strong man who can do
anything, and I think face them, there's all of those things that you
kind of face with their stereotypes. Well, see, that's that's to me,
that's the stereotype. Because I told you before, I'm at that point
of my Hi, I just don't care. Yeah, yeah, And I
think as you get older, you you you see how like older you get
like older people, they just they just say whatever they feel. They don't
care how you take it. Yeah, And I'm at that point in my
life because i can't worry about what other people. I've learned over the years
that people are always going to talk about you. They always have something negative,
They're gonna have something positive. You could do ten things right, you
could do nine things right. The one time you do one thing wrong,
that's all they focus on. So if you want to focus on that,
then guess what, keep on focusing. I'm gonna go do the other nine
things that I could do right, so you know, a nanks God for
forgiveness for the other one that I did wrong. So and then move on.
So I'm not gonna worry about you know, in that In that aspect,
I can't myself care. Like I said, I can't work. I
think people let other people opinion of themselves affect their self care. Yeah.
The mic okay, and on that note, I do apologize, but I
do have to take my wife before she doesn't before she just before she divorces
me. There, I don't have a wife anymore. On that, we'll
go to a quick music break. So we're gonna get to Hezekiah Walker.
Every praise, um, praise and worship definitely can be a self care practice.
Music is a great way of relaxing. So let's hear from Hezekiah.
Me here a worship where I want everybody around the roll and put your head
together, praise be to God. Here me go, I go everywhere worship.
We want to call every free, every frings to gods, singing halle
do to our gods. Gry Hollylo is to our God, every free,
every free to our Gods. Y'all got it, now help us and give
it free. It's to our gods given where the worst one, every breath,
every breeds to our Gods. Everybody sing o Gods glory. Hollylue.
Isn't our gon say every praise to every friends. It's to our gone.
He'll no help me through it. Take it up in free. It's to
o Gone. Every word of worships water card. I'm gonna say, if
it brings every break, it's t I gone. I want everybody all the
world to save my stu to our God, nor me holling noo, it's
you. I gone. If it preings, if it brings it to our
God, let's take it out one time. Anybody, every word worship with
water card. If it brings every bring it's to our God. I don't
care. I can feel it enough saying everybody every plays he is he shake
him, he Kai walker every page, Yes he is. Yes, he
is someone to definitely be praised. So we are coming to oh, coming
to the end of our program today. It's been a great talking point.
We've had Claire with us from Nourish to saw Oh, and I love that
it's going to really I've got to really, I really love you know,
the naming behind that, the text that you quoted on that. So we've
been talking about self care, the importance of it, how it's gonna be
beneficial. Um. So I guess just as we're coming to the end,
I guess, really, Um, we've talked about the benefits of it and
some of the things that we can do, but the challenge, I know
for a lot of people, and then dinner, and I've spoken to that.
It's just the kind of how we can stay motivated or how we can
stick to those practices. You know, So what would you how would you
encourage somebody to make a start and be to try and maintain the self care
practices that we're encouraging people to do. Sure, so I would encourage you
to get in touch with why you want to do it. Sometimes there's this
notion that we lack motivation. I don't think that's ever the case. I
think we don't understand why we're doing something. So why do you want to
look after yourself? Is it because you want to have more energy to run
after the kids, you want to be more productive at work, you want
to serve better check you know what is your why? Find your why?
And I think when it's really difficult, so say you want to do a
couch to five k because you want to be fitted. On those days where
it's raining like today and you don't want to get your trainers on, you're
not going to But if you have that sort of you can see yourself being
fitter, being stronger as a consequence of doing that action, You're more likely
to do it. So really connect into that and just start small, start
somewhere, even if it is you know, you put I'm going to use
character five ks an example, you put your trainers on and you go for
a five minute walk around the block and you're done. Do you know what?
You did something? Sometimes we can get so caught up in the thinking
about doing stuff and not doing it that we just go around in circles.
Actually, when we take action, we feel better in ours us. Even
if it is just like I say, those five minutes, we feel better
and then we kind of get momentum and go, oh, I enjoyed that.
I'm going to do it again. Yeah, I mean it's it's yeah,
I agree, agree with the whole idea of the why, and I
guess that then feeds into what then you hope to achieve after that as well?
You know, why do you want to do it? Where do I
want to get to? Sometimes if you've got an event or something to kind
of set your goal or your sights on or what have you can be something.
But I guess then when you've done that, how can you then stick
at something? You know? You know? So what research shows is it
takes twenty one days to sort of start getting a habit embedded, but sixty
three days to make it stick. And I think we all have habits good
or ones that service, ones that don't. But I think once we've got
it stuck, you know, Like I talked about my morning routine. To
somebody who doesn't do it morning morning routine, mine might seem quite oh my
word, how does she find time for all of that? But I know
when I don't do it, you know, I'm less productive, I don't
feel like my best I don't have as much energy. So for me,
like, I recognize how I feel when I do do it, and that
pushes me to keep going. And actually when I don't do it, I
feel odd now because I've been doing it so long. So I think when
you get to that point that it becomes so ingrained, when you don't do
it, it feels bizarre not doing it. Yeah. I think also as
we've we spoke a little bit about is you know, finding somebody who might
be able to help you along? Yeah, definitely, yeah. And I
mean obviously this is where we're going to segue into how people probaisly can get
in contact with you. They're interested in doing what you know doing working with
you sort of things. So I mean, do you are there sort of
resources that you could suggest or you know, how can people reach you as
well in terms of so you can find me at nourished to saw dot co
dot uk and Instagram and Facebook at nourish Saw. I have a free guide
called beat the Burnout that looks at what burnout is and what you can do
to look after yourself and that can be found at nourished to saw dot co
dot uk forward slash f forward slash beat the Burnout. Yeah, burn is
one of those. Yeah, as we talked about. I think also what's
interesting and this could be a topic for another show. I'm sure it is
actually beating the burn out for working from home um, and that's a whole
another topic. But interestingly, I think people are because obviously post pandemic,
you know, people are still working from home. You're not getting a separation
from you know, your work life, your home life, definitely social life,
it all seems to merge into one unless you're really disciplined and really can
differentiate and what have you. But also we're begging, we're begging for sorry,
we're begging for a part two as usual. Definitely really it's become part
of the process now. But we also really have to mention that that there
are some people who just don't know what self care is, and there's some
people who self harm or you know, they don't know how to care for
themselves. They don't know what the what the what self care looks like,
how to love them selves and all that kind of stuff. And I think
that begs unpacking as well, because we not definitely maybe preaching to the to
the to the choir of you know, to the congregation, but there's so
many people who don't know what it's like, don't know what it is,
and I'm also hurt themselves as opposed to care for themselves. And there is
a lot that we need to do to help people like that as well.
And maybe in a part two we can also speak to those types of situations.
And mental illness is you know, one of those things that really unravels
our self care. I know, for myself personally, when things are really
chaotic in my life and you know, I'm dealing and I'm caring for etc.
It really really just things unravel and self care is not evenly the priority
anymore. It's just surviving. So you know, we want to maybe someday
get you back on clear and talk to that. Definitely, I could definitely
share stories and talk stuff about that, And I find myself I agree like
when things get choostic, it does go out the window. But I also
find that when I am committed to doing it, I feel better and I
can cope with the chaos. But it is such a circular thing, you
know. Sometimes you can know it all and I know quite a lot,
and I still thought it can fall to the wayside, but it is just
recognizing it actually does help you to be able to turn up to life in
a better way. So yeah, yeah, And interestingly, I think with
the point was made before that sometimes self care there's the perception that we have
to do on us, do it all by ourselves, and we are quite
self the mind of that. Ultimately, we want to go to the source.
You know, God is our life giver. He is a person who
is caring for us, and I think the more that we can commune with
him, develop our relationship, you really work on our spiritual self care,
that in itself will have an amazing impact, hopefully on the rest of our
lives, because you know, He is the source. He's the one who
cares for us. You know he will help us sore as I said with
your with your text there. So I guess as we are coming to the
end, Sandy, would you mind praying for us and praying for our listeners
to kind of really sort of think about, you know, self care and
how we can look after ourselves and not being an active worship to God as
well. So let's pray the Early Father. We thank you for bringing us
to this program and this very important topic of self care. We know that
you love us. We know that you've made us for a purpose, and
for us to really fulfill that purpose, we really got to align ourselves with
your will and your way, and that is taking care of ourselves, looking
to you. For example, you rested, you took time out, you
communed with your father, and we need to follow those principles and give us
a strength to do so, give us the courage to do so, give
us the insight to do so. It because we want to be moral like
you everywhere. We want to fulfill our purpose, and ultimately we want to
bring others to your saving grace. Thank you for Claire empower her, bring
her ministry and company and the work that she does from strength and Strengthlis so
thankful that she joined us today and for both of us, for myself and
for Angela. You know we are struggling, but you promised to be with
us for it with every step and you help, you help us, you
encourage us, you will keep us. And for all our listeners we ask
for you to do the same or pray that they've been blessed today in your
name. I pray amen, Amen Amen. So yes, thanks approaching that
seven o'clock our work, So Claire, when I thank you so much for
joining us today. It's been love you to meet you and hear you doing
and encouraging us, encouraging our listeners. You know, to practice self care,
to take that time to look after yourself and sort of think about why
we're doing it, you know, and the things that we can achieve and
how life can be so much better. So yep, Zenia said, we
will. We'd love to have you back on again for a part two.
So thank you so much and thank you to our listeners. Thank you for
joining us today. Do you stick with Advantage to Radio London. There is
programming over the weekend and we'll be back next week. And we're going to
end with Kat Franklin's I Smile, Yes, definitely a great song. Self
care can help us feel happier, segueing there as well. So as you
say good night, have a good evening, enjoy the rest of your weekend,
practice some self care and definitely hopefully that will bring a smile to your
face. Good night, and thank you for joining us at talking points as
good night for myself, ANGELA lovely good night everyone. We'll see you again.
I smile. I dedicate the soul tossion depression. Today's a looning,
but there is a sunshine, nothing but clowns, and it started in my
heart and it feels like a cold night. Today's I do day. Where
from my blue skies? Where is a love and the joy that you promised
me? Tell me all right, I'll be honest with you. I am
mostly a power that I can't splain. Sail from heaven like a shower.
When I think I's better, I'm gonna be when this is over. Even
though I see a smile is Faking's all fun either though I mean it.
What you do, I smile, come on, smile so I get it
down. Show would hate to see again down, cause people kill so much
that smile so sile never dan gonna. But it's student me today most days
a lot, but there is no sunshine, nothing but clounsing. It stuck
in my heart and it feels like a cold night. It ain't easy,
but to day's a tell me remember my blues light? Where is that love?
Y'all? There is a love and the joy that you promised me.
Tell me it's all right. The truth is almostly. I'm power and I
can't play. It goes power, y'all from that like a shower. Now,
I know we were hurt, child, but still come on, even
though I see I stile, and y'all feel that God is working, So
I fi even though I'm mean, it skills stiles down. Show would hate
to see again down because people feel so much that let's school me. Whoa,
Why can't you just smile for me? Whatever you're in right now?
Me smile? Can't you just shie? Me? And my people say?
Al mustadt say? And while you're waiting yea, And while you're praying,
look in the mirror always remember the almostand why I almost came. But it
goes power, y'allad hang down from hardships, difficult arts. This is what
I do. I see us whatever feels good. It's like all things are
working. It still style. I know it's hard right now to see you
because you're Willner uderstand you look better Dallas, New Orleans, Cleveland mustand when
you Detroit must. Feelers Jersey Hell. All the people say understanding just to
want you to be happy, and then you gotta have something to happen there.
I want you to have joy because can't nobody take that tone you?
I see you smiling. Adventist Radio, London inspiration for the song