I was following my own advice, practicing what I preach. I was doing self-care I was reaching out. I was asking for support. I was taking things off my plate. I was doing everything that I would have told one of my clients to do. And yet I was still slowly sliding and I would do the little things. I would do the big things, and I would feel better self-care-wise for a moment. And yet those moments didn’t last. They didn’t really boy me up and fill my cup and make things even better. So I knew that I needed more than just a moment, more than just a day to really improve my state. Now I have my fingers in a lot of pots. I earn a lot of pies. I really have a lot of hobbies and I live life full bore to the fullest.

And that meant that I could choose to pull back from a lot of things a little bit, or I could choose to pull back a lot from a few things. My decision was to pull back a lot from a few things because that would just make things a little bit easier for me. There were a lot of things coming up and they were projects that I had put on my own plate. They were barreling down on me with extra responsibilities and whatnot. So I just knew that if I cut back a lot from just one or two of my little pies that I should be okay. So I brought this challenge to my fabulous team and said, Hey, I need to practice what I preach. And I need your support in this. And together, we came up with a plan where we could work really hard in September.

And then October, November, December for me, would be very reduced in responsibilities and I could continue dealing with my other pies. And yet the responsibilities with Krystal Jakosky would be much less easy. It’s not easy for me or, I don’t know who it’s easy for to speak up and say, I need help. It’s a challenge to actually verbalize and say, can somebody help me? I can’t handle this. There’s this inadequacy. There are so many things that come up when you actually do it. And the fear that someone will reject you or not support you or not help you out. And just like everyone else, me, someone who encourages and supports and inspires other people, I needed support. And I was afraid to ask for it. And yet I have a fabulous team that supported me in it. The crazy thing was that every one of them was encouraging me to do so.

I believe that they could see me sliding. I believe that they could see that I wasn’t quite as chipper or up or optimistic. And everyone around me, my husband, my team, my family, they were all saying, Hey, Krystal, how do we help? And what can we do for you? The crazy thing was that I personally needed to grant myself the permission to take that break. Everyone else could tell me that I should do it, that I could do it, that they would help me and support me in it. But it wasn’t until I told myself it was okay and embraced it and said, Krystal, you have permission. You’re telling other people to go ahead and give themselves that permission. So why aren’t you giving it to yourself? It wasn’t until I chose that, that things were able to shift a little bit. So I spoke up, we put together a plan. We put the plan into action. There were bumps and lumps along the way and unexpected things.

And we all had moments of, did I really agree to do this? Because this is bigger than we thought. And we all had to kind of muddle through it. And yet in muddling through it, we also had extra communication. Ee also got to grow stronger together because now we’re all on the same page. And we’ve been through that challenge together. There were moments during this break where things came up and it was very frustrating because we were not expecting them. They were unexpected challenges and hurdles and difficulties. We had to wade through them and figure out how to still function. The challenge for me was that I knew people needed me around and I knew that I wanted to help and be a part of things. I also knew that if I came back at that time, in that moment, if I took on more responsibilities than the cutback responsibilities we had already chosen and worked out that I would just fall further. I was feeling better.

I was improving. I was starting to see the clouds part. I was achieving and taking all of the other challenges off of my plate that had been placed there by me. I have to be recognized by me. And yet I could not add more responsibilities back on because I would have just slid back right into where I was, which meant that I had these unbelievably valuable lessons in regards to speaking up for my own needs and setting those boundaries and saying, yeah, I hear that you need ABC. I can give you X, Y, Z. So how do we bridge the gap? How do I honor my own needs? Recognizing how important this break is at this time and what is best for my self-care and my emotional stability, and how do you get what you need so that you can continue doing and achieving and succeeding where your boundaries are ridiculously important, paramount, required.

When we are challenged, when we’re overwhelmed, it’s really easy to put other people’s needs before our own. And that does not matter who you are. Single, married, parent No it’s really easy as humans to put someone else’s needs before our own. That’s where we start to slide energetically because we forget to take care of ourselves. And again, I had been taking care of myself. I had been trying to do self-care. I had been practicing all of my own tools in an effort to avoid this downside. And yet I was still down sliding. What I want you to hear, what I hope that you understand and get is that even I need that. Even I need reminders. Even I need a break. Even I need support from someone who is out there and putting out positive, loving content, encouraging people to love themselves. I still, on occasion, need to be reminded to love myself.

I still on occasion need to be reminded to take a break, go have a cup of tea. Go take a breather. None of us are perfect. We all need a break. And a couple of little tips for you. If you find that you are in the space where you need a break, you need to refill your cup. You need just a little bit of space so that you can heal no matter how big or small that break is. The first thing I want you to do is grant yourself permission. I had to give myself permission. If I had not given myself permission, this break was going nowhere and nothing would happen. I would not improve. I would not feel better because I was not granting myself the compassion and permission to take a break. Number two, tell somebody, you are going to take a break. If you don’t put it out into the universe that you’re taking a break and telling somebody that you are doing that is, you are taking responsibility, saying I’m doing this.

I need, I am going to meet my needs. And the third thing I want you to do is to say “no” to one thing, however, big or small, I don’t care. Just say no saying yes is putting somebody else before you saying no says I am worth it. I deserve that break. And I’m taking it right now. We all need it. We all deserve it. We are worthy of our own love and support. Reach out, give yourself exactly what you need. So give permission, tell somebody about it and then say, no. I look forward to seeing you here again next week on Breathe In, Breathe Out.

I hope this moment of self-care and healing brought you some hope and peace. I’m @krystaljakosky on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube and I hope you check us out and follow along for more content coming soon. I look forward to being with you again, here on Breathe In, Breathe Out. Until next time, take care.