How To Be Good to Yourself When Life Is Hard and Time Is Short | #202 🌞

When stress goes up and free time disappears, you're almost always the first thing that gets sacrificed. But being good to yourself isn't a reward for when things calm down — it's how you survive when they don't. In this Daily Dose of Dawn, resilience coach Dawn Super shares how she went from constant burnout and pain to embracing JOMO, outdoor immersion, and the small free pleasures that science says actually regulate your nervous system and support your immune system. This isn't about fixing everything. It's about making the experience a little more comfortable while you're in it.

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How to be good to yourself when stress increases or free time decreases. It's easy to put yourself last and to even make excuses about why you can't put yourself first. It's even easier to do that when we're overdone physically, when our body betrays us, and when our minds are not a fun place to be.

Whether you're stressed out about what's going on in the economy or the world or what's going on inside your own meatsuit, this video is going to give you some ways that you can calm down and feel a little bit better inside of yourself. And if all that sounds like something you want to think about for a few minutes, welcome in to your daily dose of Dawn at Dawn — videos designed to expand your thinking.

You can do a whole lot more when you're the tortoise and not the hare. Sure, I'd read that old fable as a kid, but little Dawn had narcolepsy and she would have to go fast to get things done before she got tired. Then when I got on meds, it was go go go nap, go go go go go sleep. It was just on or off. I never had anything other than fast forward. Essentially it led to me being in pain all the time and burnt out constantly.

Obviously at 56 years old, my life is a lot different than it was even at 46 years old. But New Dawn says no a lot more. I've spent the last 10 years getting okay with doing less and embracing JOMO — the joy of missing out. There are only so many things we get to experience in this lifetime and we should be prioritizing the ones that are the biggest things that we love the most.

Right now I choose to prioritize things that help me feel good in my body. And not just food — like everything you consume. I don't watch television. I used to when I felt like I needed to escape all the time. Now I invest that time in my personal growth and in my purpose, which are connected to each other. I've learned so many lessons in this very challenging life that it's made me a great field-tested resilience coach. And this is the free help.

Healing is not an all or nothing thing. We heal in bits all the time. Being on your own side means you rearrange things to put yourself first.

🧲 Hey, Dawn Super here. If you thrive on repetition, if you love little phrases to help you with your memory, and you're looking for effective tools to help you on your personal growth journey, take a second and check out my fridge philosophy magnets at happymatters.guru.

Whether you're trying to survive starting over by yourself,

working on ending generational trauma,

trying to find your patience in an impatient world,

or teaching your traumatized brain how to actually regulate your nervous system

because there's no reason that doing the work can't be fun.

If I don't want to be burnt out and in pain, I decline the invitation. I go to bed early. I put myself first. I eat more nutritiously. I bring in the helper feels. Listen to music that makes me feel good inside of my body.

If you noticed, I've been doing less doses — putting myself first because my life is hard in every way. I give myself permission to do that. I invite ease and radically accept that I do things differently.

I recently learned there's a term for people who love being outside — it's outdoor immersion. And I have a wonderful neighbor who gardens and her expertise spills over the fence and I get to enjoy it and the only labor I have is sweeping up what falls on the ground. And the nature brings the birds and I've also been feeding the birds so I have more birds. And being delighted by things adds a lot of comfort to your life. And that's not just my Pisces heart telling you that — it's actual science. Being in a state of awe relaxes your nervous system and helps your immune system function better. So comforting yourself is literally medicine.

And when you're living in a body that betrays you, you really should do like every single little thing that you can do to make your life easier, to make the experience more comfortable — cuz why not? Like what's the point of doing anything else? Even if it's hard or you have to do small things, it still makes a difference to you to do it.

So take a minute and start thinking about ways that you can be good to yourself. Wear your most comfortable clothes. Eat your most favorite foods. Do your most favorite things whenever you can. Find the free, easy, available things that delight you and fill your life with them.

And it's not going to fix you. I still have all the things wrong with me. But it's a little bit more comfortable.

Wanna go deeper? Check this one out:

Get my FREE mini guide e-book, How To Start Liking Yourself - give yourself a head start on turning it all around ✨✨✨ https://dawnsuper.com/how-to-like-yourself