Sarah’s Health Notes: Take time for you

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A new campaign is urging women to take 25 minutes a day just for themselves - we’re SO in…

Some years ago, I interviewed GP Dr. Rangan Chatterjee about his first book The 4 Pillar Plan, which he described as simple ways to help transform your life. He identified the lack of ‘switch off time’ as one of the most pressing issues in modern society: ‘For your health it could hardly be more critical,’ he told me.

One 40-year-old female patient with Crohn’s (a painful bowel disease) consulted him after giving up on her specialist. Dietary changes helped at first but she quickly plateau’d. Delving deeper, he found ‘she did nothing in her life for herself, everything was for her family’. To her surprise, this was Dr Chatterjee’s prescription:

• Two 15-minute periods of time for
you each day

• A walk every morning

• Find something to do at least twice a week that you love and do just for yourself.

Four weeks later, his patient reported that she now walked every morning, ditched her phone and laptop twice a day and listened to music, and had joined a salsa class. A medical questionnaire revealed that her symptoms had reduced by 50 per cent. ‘This kind of reduction in a four-week time frame, for a condition as complex and serious as Crohn’s, is simply incredible,’ he commented.

Sanctuary Spa’s new campaign ‘This Counts’ has just launched, with the brand encouraging women to take a guilt-free 25 minutes a day just for them. The key thing is not to see it as selfish or impossible – ‘you must be joking! With all I have to do…!’– but achievable, even if it’s in five-minute chunks. And obviously you don’t have to be ill to get on board with this; it’s important for everyone to put their wellbeing at the top of the To Do list, not the bottom.

The brand commissioned a survey of 2000 women aged between 18 and 65, which reported in April 2021. Asked how much time for self-care they would ideally like per day, the average came back as 51 minutes. (Self-care was defined as ‘any time you have taken out of the day to actively do something for yourself to feel cared for’.)

Sanctuary Spa decided to suggest we take 25 minutes out daily because it’s realistic for most women. (We’d say more is definitely better…) And, the brand emphasises, everything you do for yourself counts! Soaking in a fragrant bath, digging into a jar of your favourite jam/spread/whatever, watering your pots – there’s a sweet little film on Youtube here and below if you’re short of ideas (no, us neither…).

I polled our busy-busy team to see what flicked on the self-care switches - here are mine to start with…

• Deadheading roses and picking/arranging flowers for the house

• A bath or shower with lovely oils/scrubs/face mask/hair mask

• Tickling my horse’s tummy

• Walking round the village hand in hand with my husband (soppy but true…)

• Looking at frocks online

And Jo’s…

• Reading ‘Airmail’ by Graydon Carter on my iPad

• Plumping cushions

• An Aromatherapy Associates Deep Relax bath

• Tidying my bedside table (honestly!)

• Making a chai with Rare Tea Co. Speedy Breakfast and dead-heading while I drink it