Welcome to December — the month of Pampering! This is the best habit. All month, we are going to take time to take care of ourselves. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of your family. So, this is such an important habit to practice.

“If you don’t take care of you who will?” ~ FlyLady

Don’t forget to check out FlyLady’s Pamper Mission through out the year! You are so worth it!

Your testimonials inspire others and touch my heart. Please send them to me FlyLady@flylady.net with MY TESTIMONIAL FOR FLYLADY in the subject line.

Here are the habits we have covered so far this year. Remember to reinforce these habits while completing your new one:

• January – Shining Your Sink
• February – Decluttering for 15 minutes a day
• March – Getting dressed to shoes
• April – Making the bed
• May – Moving
• June – Drinking water
• July – Swish and swipe
• August – Laundry
• September – Before-bed Routine
• October – Paper Clutter
• November – Menu Planning
  
  Don’t forget to keep up with the habits you created. View our habit archive.

Pampering Yourself is NOT Selfish

Dear Friends,

The Habit for this month is Pampering. The reason that we have you work on a habit each month is to help teach you how to make something a part of your everyday routine. Pampering is really really important to your over all health and well being. Learning to take time out for yourself is a huge part of FLYing. If you don’t take care of you who will?

FlyLady and I can’t stress enough the taking care of YOU! This begins with getting dressed to shoes, getting enough sleep, eating well and blessing your heart by moving each day. The Pampering Habit is building on to those already established habits to take better care of you. It may feel silly or extravagant to pamper yourself. Some of you may even feel as though you don’t deserve it. Some of you may feel that it is too expensive to pamper yourself — I promise you it is not.

We are going to spend this whole month sharing different ideas and ways to learn how to build pampering into your routine. Pampering is not selfish, it is all a part of Finally Loving Yourself. Investing time in who you are and the way you feel is not a waste of time, it is an investment that will keep paying you back over and over. Feeling good about yourself changes your mental outlook and attitude.

When you roll out of bed, throw on whatever is handy, somewhat brush your hair, make an attempt at slapping on some lipstick and throwing on whatever shoes you see, is not the way to start your day off feeling as though you can conquer the world. When you lay out your clothes the night before, have an established morning routine for fixing your hair and make up and then pamper yourself by putting on a favorite piece of jewelry that doesn’t get worn often, a spritz of perfume that you love, you will feel totally different when you walk out of the bathroom stepping into a new day.

In reality not taking care of yourself is actually selfish. You are robbing yourself of feeling good about who you are and you are robbing your families of you being the happy and content person that you can be. It takes BabySteps to teach you to Love Yourself but that is okay we are striving for progress not perfection.

Pay attention to all the Pampering ideas and tips that are coming your way and please participate. You will love how you feel about yourself!

Testimonial: Pampering Myself This Month

Dear FlyLady,

I am pampering myself this month!!!

I took myself off to my doctor to have my thyroid checked because my symptoms have been acting up again since the cold weather has been here. (General sluggishness, hair falling out, overly sleepy, weight gain, cold cold cold all the time, and loss of patience for my three sweet babies.) I did the research and went in “fully armed” to get what I needed (a tweaked prescription).

And she said, “Oh — I see your numbers have jumped two points this year, and I hear you telling me about all your symptoms. Let’s up your prescription and check you again in six weeks.” And here’s the “Go ME!” part for me — I made the appointment, filled the prescription, and started taking it yesterday first thing in the morning. I feel like I’m back in high school!

I have sooooo much energy and pep again! My routines no longer look overwhelming, and I didn’t NEED a nap with my two younger ones yesterday. I know that it’ll take a week or so before this is all leveled out, and my body is used to it, but this was a true blessing for me!

Thank you for encouraging us to take charge and take care of ourselves. Without all your loving FLY-washing, I would’ve put it off, saying other things are more important right now. Thanks for your inspiration! Now – off to get my babies down for their nap!

Yvette in VA