When did you start noticing your lack of sleep wasn’t healthy or normal? When did you start noticing you are not as active as you used to be –five, ten, maybe twenty– years ago? When did you start noticing yourself annoyed and irritated? Or even, having neck, back, knees and other muscle pains?

There’s something nobody tells us as often as they should. Taking care of our mental and physical health is as important as our job.

This modern world we live in, taught us to be efficient and to divide our private life from our working life, but recent academic studies have proven that our private life can sometimes be what makes us distant from our job, and our job what makes us have personal, mental and physical problems. Being aware of our needs, pleasures, issues and ambitions can be essential for our professional and personal growth. Taking care of ourselves should be a top priority.

An excellent way to start taking care of ourselves and recognizing our needs is with some psychological help. Assisting to a psychologist or psychiatrist can be an excellent way to begin. Professionals in this manner can help you be self-aware of your needs, ambitions, pleasures and issues. This combined with some activities to clear your mind can be an excellent complement, you can start trying some exercise, meditation, or any kind of activity. Try avoiding an environment that relates to work, like navigating the internet or being on your phone in order to avoid work related emails and calls.

Try new activities such as, taking your dog for a walk, or your kids. Going for ice cream, painting, or some gardening? Anything that doesn’t link you to a chair, computer or paperwork.

I understand there are people who don’t have time for themselves but, make some… you can transform daily routines into unwinding moments, whenever you take a shower dim the lights and put some relaxing music, try sleeping five minutes earlier, spoil yourself with a soothing massage before sleep, make yourself a herbal tea and try to incorporate some hemp products free from addictive substances into your daily routine that can help you relax the mind and body. Self awareness can drastically improve the quality of life and in some cases save lives. Please give yourself the attention you need and deserve.