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89. Self-Care for Dancers That Actually Works
199 Plays1 month ago
Self-care gets marketed as bubble baths and spa days. But for dancers, real self-care is often much less glamorous and much more powerful.
In this solo episode, I break down what sustainable self-care actually looks like for dancers who want long, healthy, fulfilling careers. From sleep and hydration to decision fatigue, physical therapy, and getting off social media, this conversation focuses on the small, proactive habits that protect your body, brain, and soul.
Because true self-care isn’t reactive; it’s the daily basics that make everything else easier.
If you’ve been feeling burnt out, overwhelmed, or like you’re constantly playing catch-up with your health, this episode is your reminder to go back to the foundations.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Self Care for Dancers Blog Post: https://www.thebrainyballerina.com/blog/self-care-for-dancers-that-actually-works
Join the Brainy Ballerina Book Club: https://www.thebrainyballerina.com/the-brainy-ballerina-book-club
The Lazy Genius: https://amzn.to/45Kuxty (affiliate link)
Brick: https://getbrick.app
Related episodes:
BONUS: The Impact of the Ballet World's Obsession with Weight with Dr. Stephanie Potreck
23. A Holistic Approach to Strength Training with Wendy Reinert
68. Fueling the Mind-Body Connection with Registered Sports Dietitian Lisa Rivera
84. 2025 Year in Review and Being Where Your Feet Are in 2026
Let’s connect!
My WEBSITE: thebrainyballerina.com
INSTAGRAM: instagram.com/thebrainyballerina
1-1 Career Mentoring: book your complimentary career call
Questions/comments? Email me at caitlin@thebrainyballerina.com
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Transcript
Proactive Self-Care: The Daily Essentials
00:00:00
Speaker
And as much as I love an Epsom salt bath and a face mask, they are not going to fix all your problems because self-care is not just reactive. The best type of self-care is proactive. It is the little things you do each and every day because you know your future self will thank you.
00:00:20
Speaker
I'm Kaitlyn, a former professional ballerina turned dance educator and career mentor, and this is the Brand New Ballerina podcast. I am here for the aspiring professional ballerina who wants to learn what it really takes to build a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. I'm peeling back the curtain of professional dance world with open and honest conversations about the realities of becoming a professional dancer.
00:00:44
Speaker
Come along to gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to succeed in a dance career on your terms.
What is True Self-Care?
00:00:54
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Brainy Ballerina podcast. Caitlin here and today we are doing a solo episode talking all about self-care for the dancers.
00:01:05
Speaker
Self-care is a major buzzword right now, and we are constantly bombarded with the message that we need to take care of ourselves before we can be there for others.
00:01:16
Speaker
A lot of the imagery around self-care that I see is depicted as maybe lighting some candles, taking a bubble bath, listening to some relaxing music, and emerging as a brand new person ready to take on the world.
00:01:33
Speaker
And I love all those things. I do all those things. But I have a lot of thoughts about self-care and what it really means. And the truth is, it's a lot less glamorous than we make it out to be to truly care for yourself.
00:01:48
Speaker
First of all, the point of taking care of yourself first is not exclusively so that you can take care of other people. The point of taking care of yourself is to treat yourself like somebody you love and you want to see thrive.
00:02:04
Speaker
You deserve to be taken care of. You deserve to be cared for. and yes, we have the responsibility to show up for the people in our lives and to be there for our friends and family and neighbors. That's all important.
00:02:16
Speaker
But the whole idea that you can't pour from an empty cup implies that the only reason you are taking care of yourself is to turn around and give all of your best energy away. And it also implies that self-care is only not selfish as long as you are doing it for others. And I just don't believe that.
00:02:36
Speaker
You are the only person you're going to be with your entire life. When you fill your cup, it's not just to turn around and give it all away. You can save some for yourself as well. And showing up for yourself is has to be a daily practice and commitment.
00:02:52
Speaker
And as much as I love an Epsom salt bath and a face mask, they are not going to fix all your problems because self-care is not just
Foundations of Physical Well-being
00:03:00
Speaker
reactive. The best type of self-care is proactive. It is the little things you do each and every day because you know your future self will thank you.
00:03:10
Speaker
I know that some of the most important self-care practices I need to maintain for my brain, for my body, for my soul are really, really simple. Moving my body, getting outside, getting enough sleep, drinking water, eating enough food, taking my medication.
00:03:30
Speaker
It is not glamorous, but it's incredibly effective. If you are not already doing those baseline things, then all the other self-care that you do that might fall under the trendy type of self-care is just going to be a band-aid.
00:03:47
Speaker
It's not going to solve the problem. So if you want to truly get to a place where you do care for yourself on the daily, your nervous system is regulated, you have to go back to basics.
00:04:00
Speaker
And once you do that, then you can add on the other things. But without those, everything else is not going to be as effective as you want it to be. Today I'm going to talk through a few very specific things that I think are really important for you as a dancer.
00:04:17
Speaker
to prioritize self-care for your body, your brain, and your soul. So let's start with the body. Going back to what I just said, you have to prioritize your sleep.
00:04:29
Speaker
And you need to know how many hours you need to function best and commit to it. As an adult, I always heard that you need seven to nine hours of sleep a night.
00:04:40
Speaker
And so in my mind, I thought, great, I'll get seven hours a night because that's the least amount of time that I could get to hit that threshold. And I am type A, I'm a rule follower. I want to follow the rules. So I thought, great, I hear seven hours is enough. I'm going to get that much sleep a night and I'll be good to go.
00:04:59
Speaker
But turns out seven hours is not my ideal amount of sleep a night. And unfortunately for me, nine hours is actually my ideal amount of sleep a night. My husband is a seven-hour person.
00:05:12
Speaker
And I'm incredibly jealous of him because he gets two extra hours a day to be awake and doing things that I literally don't get because I know that I need nine hours of sleep every night.
00:05:24
Speaker
Can I get by on less a few nights here and there? Sure. But if I do more than one or two nights in a row, i am really going to feel it. And I know that nothing good happens when I don't have enough sleep.
00:05:37
Speaker
When I'm exhausted, i feel like I cannot regulate my emotions. I can't use my brain. I can't think properly. am anxious. i am frustrated. i am on edge.
00:05:48
Speaker
We know that getting enough sleep improves your reaction time and decreases your risk of injury. We also know that sleeping is when your memories consolidate. So maybe you're learning a lot of choreography.
00:05:59
Speaker
You're having a really hard time retaining it all. So you stay up late going over it to try to remember it. But when you sleep, your brain is doing that automatically. It's taking every single thing you learned that day and consolidating it. So when you wake up the next day, you probably have noticed that when you get a good night's sleep, the choreography is there in your brain and you know it better than if you tried to stay up all night long reviewing it.
00:06:23
Speaker
So next time you feel tempted to skimp on sleep, remember that your brain is working while you're sleeping and so is your body. Your tissues are repairing themselves during sleep as well. So if you take your sleep seriously, you're going to retain choreography better. You're going to have fewer overuse injuries. You're going to recover faster. Everything is going to work better when you prioritize your sleep.
00:06:46
Speaker
The next kind of boring thing that I'm going to say that you already know, but I'm going to say it anyways, is you need to make sure you're drinking enough water. Even a 1% to 2% dehydration reduces your strength, your endurance, your cognitive performance.
00:06:59
Speaker
Everything feels harder. you feel more tired. Drinking enough water literally makes dancing feel easier. For me, drinking enough water is not necessarily the issue. And I don't know if you can relate to this or not, but for me, the hardest part about drinking enough water is making sure that I have water in front of me and getting up to fill my cup.
00:07:22
Speaker
Having to get up out of my chair if I am working at my desk or walk down the hallway of the studio to refill my water bottle. It's harder than drinking the water.
00:07:34
Speaker
So the habit that I've gotten into is as soon as my water bottle or my glass is empty, I immediately refill it. Then I always have water in front of me and I am way more likely to drink it if it is there.
00:07:45
Speaker
So try to get in the habit of immediately refilling your water as soon as it's gone. And you'll notice that you are more hydrated and able to tackle your day more easily.
00:07:56
Speaker
Another thing that seems simple but that I have to say is making sure that you are eating enough. Not only does your body use a lot of energy when you're dancing, but so does your brain. And your brain requires energy.
00:08:10
Speaker
fuel to operate just like the rest of your body does. Dance is so incredibly demanding, not just on your muscles, but on your cognition. As a dancer, you're really asking yourself to use both constantly.
00:08:23
Speaker
You're never just using your body or just using your brain, right? You are constantly in motion and having to think about a lot of things at once. You're learning a ton of choreography, you're getting a bunch of corrections, and you're applying it physically.
00:08:36
Speaker
So your body needs a lot of fuel to account for that. And I know dance culture will tell you to eat as little as possible, but I need you to know that you are never going to reach your peak performance if you do that.
00:08:49
Speaker
And you need to make sure you're packing snacks eat throughout the day. Even if you're eating enough in your meals, you need to stabilize your blood sugar because it's going to improve your concentration, your motor control. Underfueling is really going to increase that injury risk.
00:09:02
Speaker
And everything just feels harder when you don't have enough fuel to power your dancing. I've done a number of amazing episodes with dietitians on the importance of fueling. I'm going to link those all in the show notes for this episode so you can check them out because they are so, so good and they have so much more knowledge than I do.
00:09:20
Speaker
But the baseline self-care aspect of it is make sure you are eating enough to sustain yourself to be able to do all the things that you want to do. And when the day inevitably does come that you do get sick or injured because you can do all the right things and still get sick or injured. It is not a moral failing that that happens. It is life.
00:09:43
Speaker
When that happens, please take the time to recover. Continuing to dance while you are sick or injured is only going to prolong your recovery. And if you go to rehearsal when you are sick, it's going to increase that risk for injury because you're fatigued, you have poor coordination, you're not really fully there.
00:10:04
Speaker
It's a lot easier to have a misstep and sustain an injury when you're in that place. At some point, your body is going to demand a break. So either you have to choose when to give it one or it's going to decide for you.
00:10:18
Speaker
So please don't wait until your battery is at zero to take the time to recharge. As a dancer, I basically thought I couldn't miss class of rehearsal unless I was in the hospital.
00:10:29
Speaker
and ended up much sicker because of it many times. Listen to those signs before you get to zero. Maybe you're at 30% and you need to take a rest day because you are sick. Our definition of sick as dancers, it's so much different than the rest of the world.
00:10:43
Speaker
But we're also doing something that demands so much more of our bodies than a lot of people. So even more so, we need to rest when we're sick. Just remember that one day off while you're sick to recover is so much better than a couple of weeks out later.
00:10:57
Speaker
because you didn't listen to your body when it was giving you small signals and now they've turned into huge screams that you can't ignore.
Maintaining Physical Health: Routines and Strategies
00:11:03
Speaker
Another really important thing that I have incorporated into my life on a consistent basis is going to physical therapy and working with a personal trainer.
00:11:13
Speaker
This has been game-changing to me to consistently be working with people who know what they're doing, who understand the body, and who are working with my specific needs to give me the exercises and the plan that works for me and then following through with it.
00:11:29
Speaker
And I talked about this in the New Year episode, but just a reminder that small daily actions, small daily exercises are going to outperform the lawn session you do once a month.
00:11:41
Speaker
If you can take 15 minutes to do your PT exercises every single day, that's better than a two-hour intense workout you do one day a month. Right now, working with my personal trainer, I am two days a week doing sessions that are about an hour and a half to fit all the exercises in, and then I'm doing my PT on the side.
00:12:00
Speaker
So there definitely is an element of longer training in there, but it is still consistent. I'm doing it every single week, two days a week, and I am truly seeing results and I'm feeling stronger than I have in a very long time.
00:12:13
Speaker
And right now as a retired dancer, my end game is more looking at what I want to be able to do at 80 years old than being able to dance, which I know may not be as motivating because it feels so far away right now.
00:12:24
Speaker
But as a dancer, it's the same thing. If you do your exercises, if you take care of yourself, again, before you have a huge injury, if you listen to your body when there's a little bit of a nudge that something is off and you work with someone to correct those imbalances or to get stronger in your weaker areas, those tiny little annoyances won't turn into huge full-blown injuries.
00:12:47
Speaker
because you've done the work. You'll have less setbacks and you'll be able to keep improving so much faster. So all these things that I mentioned about taking care of your body, again, they're not that glamorous. They're not that exciting. They're kind of boring actually.
00:13:00
Speaker
But unfortunately, it's the boring things that you do every day that make a way bigger difference than the random things that you do. And I am all for other modalities. I get regular massages. I love red light therapy. I love a bubble bath. Like all of these things that you do outside of these basics are great.
00:13:19
Speaker
There's nothing wrong with them. And if they make you happy and they make you feel good, they're amazing. But if you're not already doing the baseline tasks to care for your body, you need to start there before you add on more things, hoping that it will fix the problem.
00:13:33
Speaker
Because again, it's just going to be a band-aid. And you want to address the root cause. Now let's talk about a few things you can do to care for your brain. Let's start again with a really basic, boring thing.
00:13:44
Speaker
Take your medication. Take your prescriptions. Take them every day. You will notice a difference. This may make me sound like I am 90 years old, but I have my pill case.
00:13:56
Speaker
I take five minutes every Sunday to fill up my pill case. And I have an AM and a PM slot. And I put every single thing I need to take, supplements, prescriptions, all of it in there.
00:14:09
Speaker
And I do not have an actual stat on this. I haven't really been tracking it that closely. But I truly think that I'm 90% more likely to take my medication If I do this, then if I just rely on myself to take every single bottle out of the cabinet every single morning and night, remember how many doses I take of each medication, remember if I took it yet or not.
00:14:31
Speaker
If you're not already using a pill case to organize yourself, I highly recommend getting one. They are not expensive and expensive. it really will increase the likelihood that you remember to take your medication. Plus, if you're traveling, it's so much easier to take that than to take every single bottle of all the different medications you need. It really is worth it.
Mental Clarity through Organization and Routine
00:14:50
Speaker
Another principle that I have really been working to incorporate into my life that has been amazing for my brain is the decide once principle. And this is from an author named Kendra Adachi. She is the author of The Lazy Genius.
00:15:05
Speaker
So basically, the decide once principle means that you make one decision about one thing, and then you just keep doing that same thing over and over again until that doesn't work for you anymore, and then you decide to change it.
00:15:17
Speaker
But basically, it comes down to the fact that we are making so many decisions every single day and decision fatigue is so real and it eats up a lot of your brain power.
00:15:29
Speaker
It requires a lot of executive functioning skills to have to make all these decisions fresh every single day. So giving yourself fewer daily choices that you have to make is going to really help your willpower, help your consistency, and help save your brain power for the things that really matter to you.
00:15:47
Speaker
Some examples of this are meal planning. Maybe you are a person who doesn't need a lot of variety in your meals. You just need to know that they are there are and they have a good balance of everything you need and it will be available when you need it.
00:16:01
Speaker
So you say, I'm going the same thing for breakfast every single morning because I know this works for me. Or I'm going to meal prep every single Sunday and I know this is my menu. Or I'm going to rotate the a menu every four weeks and I just keep rotating that. and Every Sunday I get those same ingredients. I make that same menu for the week and then I eat that all week long and that's all I have to do. It's the only time I have to think about it.
00:16:24
Speaker
Going back to what i said about working with a personal trainer earlier, it could be your strength training schedule. This is a huge benefit of working with a trainer for me beyond having somebody so knowledgeable about the body who can give me specific exercises, but also that he gives me a schedule and he says, do these things on this day.
00:16:42
Speaker
So now I don't have to think about what to do. I have to summon the energy and the time and the willpower to do it But if I had to also use the brainpower to figure out what to do, it would happen far, far less.
00:16:57
Speaker
than if I just follow this plan that's been given to me. So it could be your morning or your bedtime routine. It could be putting certain things that you know that you use on a cycle like paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap on a subscription service and then it automatically ships to your house.
00:17:15
Speaker
Having to think about a few less things throughout the day is going to make it so much easier to put your focus on the things that you care about, like your dancing. Sort of tied into this, I also have a rule in my house that everything has a home, so don't put it down, put it away.
00:17:31
Speaker
And this makes my house so much cleaner and my brain so much clearer because my brain cannot operate with clutter. I will say that I am the only one in my house who really follows this rule and the rest of my family still needs to get on board.
00:17:44
Speaker
But it helps me at least to know that anything that I pick up, I don't have to decide where it goes. It has to have a home. And if it doesn't have a home, I need to find a home for it. So i need to decide once where this thing lives and then it always goes back there.
00:17:59
Speaker
If there are things you have in your house that do not have a home, Either find a system for them, find a place for them, or get rid of them. But it will give you so much more brain space, again, to not have to think about so many things. It's overwhelming. And along the same lines, I write every single thing down.
00:18:15
Speaker
Write down your to-do list. Write down your corrections. Write down your schedule. Write down your grocery list. If it pops into your brain, write it down. Because you may tell yourself you'll remember, but you probably won't.
00:18:28
Speaker
Or you'll spend a lot of energy remembering that thing. instead of being able to focus on what you're currently doing. So for example, whenever I was in rehearsal and I would get a correction, I would write down every single correction I got in my notebook right away.
00:18:44
Speaker
Because I know I'm running a full repertory show of six pieces. I'm not going to pick up the next morning and remember all my corrections. I just won't be able to. And I know we all hate that moment when you get to a point in a piece and you do something the same way you did it the day before and you go, oh, I was supposed to do that on count five and I did it on count six again. I forgot that correction.
00:19:07
Speaker
ah So having a notebook to write things down, i could quickly glance at it before we ran every ballet and say, oh, yeah, I got these six notes yesterday. Got it.
00:19:17
Speaker
And then you're improving so much faster and it opens you up to be able to get new corrections, and maybe more artistic corrections because you're getting less of like the nitty gritty counts or spacing kind of things. You're getting things that are diving deeper into the work, which is where you want to get as a dancer.
00:19:32
Speaker
So that's just one example of how I write things down. But truly, if you see my notes app on my phone, anything I think of, any idea I have, I write it down. Because even if I'm not going to act on it that day, i'm going to come back to it later and go, yeah, that was a really good idea. Let's explore that more. Maybe you're a choreographer and you get inspiration from random things. Write it down. So these are all things you can do to help your brain operate better.
00:19:59
Speaker
And just remove some of that overwhelm your feelings that you can, again, focus on the things you really do care about that you want to put your brain space behind instead of the mundane tasks that you have to do every day that are really draining you.
Beyond Basics: Soul and Mental Care
00:20:11
Speaker
The last category of self-care I want to talk to is self-care for your soul. And I think this can be different for everyone, what really speaks to your soul. But I'm going to share a few things that help me and that I feel are really important. And I feel like this category can get overlooked. And again, going back to what I said earlier, a lot of those really basic things you have to do sleep, eat, drink water, if you're not doing those, then the rest of it is going to be really hard to do. But once you get a really good routine of being able to do those things consistently, you've got to care for your soul too. As you know, one of my favorite things to do for my soul is read. I am a voracious reader. I constantly have a book or two going.
00:20:52
Speaker
Usually one on my Kindle, one quote unquote real book, and then audiobook too. And i recently have been getting into audiobooks a lot more and I used to not really like them, but I have found it increasingly difficult in this current stage of life to sit down and have time to read.
00:21:10
Speaker
So instead of just throwing that away, i am finding audiobooks that I enjoy that I can listen to while I'm driving, while I'm going for a walk, while I'm cleaning my house. So I can sort of find a compromise there.
00:21:21
Speaker
If you're thinking to yourself, yeah, I used to love to read and I haven't really read in a while, or I really need a new book to read, I don't know where to start. Check out the Brainy Ballerina Book Club. I will link that in the show notes as well.
00:21:33
Speaker
But at this point, I think we have over 30 books that we've read over the past years. We do six books a year. Every other month, there's a new book pick. So you can start where are we are right now and just pick up with the rest of the club, or you go back and read some of the past books. There's so many great choices. So that's a great resource that's available to you to help also take some of that decision fatigue out of what do I read?
00:21:58
Speaker
Here are some great options that I really love and if you're looking for a certain type of book Send me a message I can let you know which one would be the best for you right now if you want something more informational something more fun Something lighter.
00:22:10
Speaker
There's so many options. So let me know I can help out with that Another thing that I really feel this is for your soul your brain and your body actually But I put it in this category is to go outside. I am in wisconsin. It has been negative degrees for At least two weeks I have not been going outside very much, but it's getting to the point now where today it's going to reach 27 degrees, which feels pretty balmy here in Wisconsin. And I'm going to try to bundle up and get out for a quick walk.
00:22:39
Speaker
Going outside is one of the most important things you can do for your nervous system. As the youth say, touch grass, right? It lowers your stress. It improves your mood. Instantly upon going outside, I already feel better.
00:22:52
Speaker
Getting regular sunlight is also going to regulate your circadian rhythm. which also leads to better sleep. Even just five minutes outside can make a change in your whole mood. Get outside, get some fresh air. it will really make a huge difference.
00:23:06
Speaker
The other thing that I really encourage you doing for your soul is to get off of social media or at the very least unfollow social media accounts that make you feel bad.
00:23:17
Speaker
But honestly, our human brains were not meant to deal with social media the way it's set up right now. We're seeing so many horrific things on our social media right now and you're not getting to choose when you see them.
00:23:31
Speaker
They're just popping up, and that's very dysregulating for us as humans. I'm not saying to be uninformed. You need to be informed about what's going on in the world right now. There's a lot of awful, horrific things happening.
00:23:44
Speaker
However, it used to be that you would get your newspaper, Or you would turn on your nightly news program and you would be inviting that into your life, right? So you would say, now I'm going to watch my news program. Now I'm going to read the newspaper. I'm going to inform myself about what's going on.
00:24:00
Speaker
And then that would end and you would leave it. And then you could use that information to take action. But now we open our phones, you click on social media And there's so much information being bombarded at you.
00:24:14
Speaker
You're not getting to choose when you see things. And again, I'm not saying to bury your head in the sand and not pay attention to what's going on in the world. But I am saying to be very mindful about when you are consuming the media because that is a self-care practice. And when you're so overwhelmed with all of the information and all of the things coming at you,
00:24:34
Speaker
you're way more likely to want to bury your head in the sand and not take action and just throw in the towel because it's just like, what could I possibly do? There's so much. It's way too much for us to take in as opposed to when you mindfully consume media, then you can use it in way more actionable ways.
00:24:50
Speaker
And it doesn't have to be that extreme to be harmful for you. It may even be something like you find yourself constantly comparing yourself to another dancer You see all these amazing dancers doing 18 turns or having crazy extension and then you just start to feel bad about yourself and your abilities and wonder why you're even dancing and you go down that spiral. We've all been there.
00:25:13
Speaker
That's not helpful either. And I use social media for my business quite a bit and I try to be a helpful voice And I do try to bring humor to my page because I do think being silly is a very important thing in our world.
00:25:29
Speaker
I think finding joy and fun and silliness is actually very serious work. Because it's a big part of our humanity and without it, we're going to crumble. So I'm out there posting informational things, but also silly things because I want to still bring that brevity into the space. But I have to be very, very mindful as a business owner and a content creator about how much I use my phone. And I mentioned this in the New Year's episode, but I have been using the brick and the Now that I'm a few months more into using it, I really can't recommend it more.
00:26:01
Speaker
So basically the brick, you can block certain apps on your phone and you can only unbrick your phone and go back on them if you scan a physical brick. It's magnetic, so I put mine on my fridge and then I will brick my phone around dinner time usually is the goal at least.
00:26:17
Speaker
So when my kids get home from school, I'm present with them. I'm present with my husband at night. Then I go to bed. I'm not doom scrolling. And then I wake up. I can't immediately check my social media apps first thing in the morning.
00:26:29
Speaker
I get up, I go about my day, and at some point I unbrick my phone and I feel so much better. So if you are finding that the message to get off social media resonates, but you're like, it's made to be addictive, so it's not your fault. But if you feel like it's just too addicting to do on your own, the brick is a really helpful tool. I'm going to link in the show notes a v blog post that I also wrote on this same topic that includes all of these things that I've talked about, a lot of links.
00:26:58
Speaker
for products that I recommend, and some more of the more fun and glamorous things that you can do. And the list is incredibly varied in terms of time, resources, and accessibility.
00:27:10
Speaker
And for all you type A perfectionists listening out there, and if you're a dancer, I know you probably identify in that category, please don't try to go out and do all of these things at once, or feel like you have to do something every single day for two hours for it to count.
00:27:28
Speaker
Self-care should not be one more thing to add to your to-do list that stresses you out more. It should be something that makes your life easier, that gives you space to breathe, that calms your nervous system.
00:27:42
Speaker
If it's having the opposite effect, it's not self-care. Because going back to what we talked about in the very beginning, the best type of self-care is proactive Things like taking a few hours to meal prep on Sunday because you know it makes your entire week less stressful or doing your physical therapy exercises.
00:28:00
Speaker
Every day, even though they feel hard and tedious and boring, but you know it makes you stronger and less prone to injury. All the things that make everything else in your life that you really care about and want to do easier and smoother.
00:28:16
Speaker
These small amounts of self-care you do consistently are going to help you create a life that you don't feel the need to regularly escape from.
Sustainable Self-Care Practices
00:28:24
Speaker
And establishing a consistent self-care practice that works for you is truly paramount for a long, happy life as a dancer and as a human.
00:28:35
Speaker
So I hope you can use some of these ideas to hone in on a routine that is really sustainable and works for you. As I've said throughout the episode, I'm going to link a lot of great resources in the show notes. So please check that out.
00:28:49
Speaker
And I would love to hear from you. If you're listening to this episode on Spotify, you can leave a comment on the episode sharing what resonated with you, what you're taking away from this episode, other ideas that I didn't talk about that have really helped you in your life that dancers might benefit from.
00:29:05
Speaker
I really love hearing from you and hearing your takeaways. Remember that self-care is not selfish. Keep showing up for yourself and for the person that you want to be.
00:29:16
Speaker
Thank you for tuning into the Brainy Ballerina podcast. If you found this episode insightful, entertaining, or maybe a bit of both, I would so appreciate you taking a moment to leave a rating and hit subscribe.
00:29:28
Speaker
By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode. And you'll join our community of dancers passionate about building a smart and sustainable career in the dance industry. Plus, your reigns help others discover the show too.
00:29:42
Speaker
I'll be back with a new episode next week. In the meantime, be sure to follow along on Instagram at The Brainy Ballerina for your daily dose of dance career guidance.