Non-Traditional Self-Care Reflection Questions for the Slow Down of Summer

I was recently asked to lead a discussion with my local Chamber of Commerce group on self-care. Instead of throwing out strategies like exercising three times a week, eating healthy, and getting eight hours of sleep—advice we've all heard since 7th-grade health class—I thought I would ask people to examine how well they know themselves, since our society doesn't spend much time engaging in self-reflection.

4 Reflection Questions to Sit With This Summer:

1)How do you rest? Vacation does not count. How do you rest daily, or weekly? Scrolling does not count.

2)Around whom are you your most authentic self? Who are you most honest and vulnerable with? What is it about them that creates safety for you to be “all” of who you are? How can you be more like them?

3) How do you talk to yourself? Does it resemble the way you would speak to an aging parent, a friend, a sibling, a neighbor, or a child? If your tone is harsh, where do you think it comes from? If it is compassionate, who helped shape those words?

4) What do you need this summer? More of or less of…. I personally could use some pool time eating fruit art.