”I am the family pet. I’m here for fun and protection.” I shouted this statement from the backseat as two of my friends drove us in the direction of a small spa in Florida. Yes, we were driving all night from Nashville to Florida to go to a spa. We were on - wait for it - vacation.

I had not been on a proper vacation in a while. Going on vacation with family is not a proper vacation. You still have family obligations when traveling with family. With friends, your only obligation is to have fun, eat good food, and nap accordingly.

I won’t get into the details of our vacation this time, but I will say it was exactly what I needed. Good food, great massage, and ocean swimming for hours. I’d leave and do it all again right now.

In my last post, I mentioned I had taken time off from everything to take care of myself. This vacation was the start of that.

I had such a relaxing time on vacation. Not just relaxing, rejuvenating. I genuinely had no idea how much my body and mind needed to get away.

However when I came home, I was met with the same stress that I had left behind.

Not wanting to be a victim of self-induced or environmental stress anymore, I did a few things:

1. I started meditating in the morning again - consistently. I was a yoga and meditation teacher for over 20 years, and my practice has been inconsistent since I stopped teaching. Since getting back into this habit, I do feel much better, but this isn’t all I changed.

2. I started celebrating my good habits and building on them. I did this using the Fabulous app.

3. Here’s the big one - I started therapy with BetterHelp.com. I’ve only had one session which was just an introduction, but I feel like I will get a lot from this and the therapist that the app assigned to me. I’m looking forward to working with them more.

4. The last thing I did was let myself off the hook for everything while I work on myself. I own some businesses, and I need to keep those running. But for the next two weeks, I’m on mental vacation, baby!

Now, this isn’t a self-help blog or even an educational blog, so I’m not going to give a list of things you should do to take care of yourself. However, I highly recommend overly pampering yourself when you can. Get a massage, go on a weekend vacation, go to therapy, and celebrate your wins.

While this post is NOT sponsored by BetterHelp or Fabulous, I will leave my affiliate links here if you want to try either of these apps.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to finally talk to a therapist or get your habits lined up, here you go!

BetterHelp - Get a free week

https://www.betterhelp.com/rpc/5ffd721dd724d49e-1-11

Fabulous - Get a 30-day guest pass

https://www.thefabulous.co/premium/30-day-premium-guest-pass?utm_source=guestpass