When you are aware that you are facing or feeling a lot of stress and pressure I would prescribe one very simple and drastic measure. That is I would tell you to take a “ME day.” Consider this, as we help others with issues and traumas sometimes our brains and bodies can take on the ill effects of the person’s experiences. Thus self-care becomes critical - Mark 12:31. The only rule of a ME day is that you only do what you want and you don’t do anything that you don’t want to do.
So what does a ME day look like? It looks very different depending on how you do you. My ME day will look very different from my friend’s ME day. I enjoy playing tennis, basketball and connect four. So, guess what? On my ME day I’m going to do all of that. I really like eating breakfast so on my ME day I’m going to go eat a serious breakfast somewhere.
I want to emphasize that on your ME day if there is anything that you even slightly don’t want to do then don’t do it. If you don’t want to have that polite conversation that you usually do when shopping at the store, then DON’T. If you don’t want to brush your hair that day, then DON’T.
The motivation for a ME day is that most of us spend heavy amounts of time thinking about others, our spouses, children, parents, friends, students, customers and supervisors. We spend a lot of time thinking about what others are thinking about us. In general we need to limit how much we care about these thoughts of others but on a ME day we will go ahead and turn that knob that all the way down to zero. For one day you are going to think only about what you want and like. Guess what those loud yellow pants and orange tee you have - you might as well throw them on for your ME day.
One note, don’t get into sin on a ME day or not address a responsibility that needs to be addressed on that day. I mean don’t run red lights and go slap the cashier. Also, if there is a bill that is due that day then you’re going to have pay that on a ME day. So to mitigate have-to responsibilities do as much of that as possible prior to the ME day.
