Nutrition by Dawn - Blog

All month long we’ve been talking about self-care.

The structured kind.
The scheduled kind.
The intentional kind.

But today, I want to talk about something just as important:

Intuitive self-care.

The kind that requires you to actually listen to yourself.

When You Lose Touch With What You Need

Here in New England, we’ve had a long winter.

Snow. Cold. Gray days.

And then suddenly, a few days in the 70s.

And just like that, something shifted.

The snow melted. The air changed. And I was able to get back outside for my walks, something I didn’t realize how much I had been missing.

The Difference You Can Feel

I've talked before about doing 100 days of walking through the colder months, a way to keep myself consistent even when I don’t feel like it.

But this week reminded me of something deeper.

There’s a big difference between:

• Walking on a treadmill

• And walking outside in fresh air, sunlight, and real terrain

For me, those outdoor walks:

• Improve my mood

• Strengthen my body in different ways

• Help my joints feel better

• Shift my energy entirely

And without realizing it, I had drifted away from something that truly supports my well-being.

Self-Care Isn’t Just What You Schedule

It's also what you notice.

What brings you back to life?
What shifts your energy?
What reconnects you to yourself?

Because it’s easy to:

• Get stuck in a season

• Get buried in routine

• Default to what’s convenient

And slowly lose touch with what actually makes you feel good.

The Question That Matters

So here’s what I want you to think about this week:

What have you lost touch with?

Not because you chose to…
But because life got busy, the season changed, or your environment shifted.

What is the thing that:

• Lifts your mood

• Grounds your energy

• Makes you feel more like you

That’s your intuitive self-care.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

When you feel better, everything improves.

You show up differently:

• For your clients

• For your family

• For your community

• For yourself

And when you have the capacity to give, you can create a ripple effect far beyond your immediate world.

Even small acts of care, for yourself and others, raise the energy of everything around you.

Come Back to What Works

Sometimes self-care isn’t about adding something new.

Sometimes it’s about returning to something you already know works.

For me, it was getting back outside.

For you, it might be something entirely different.

But whatever it is, it’s worth reconnecting with.

As always, what I hope for you is that you live a life you love without giving up the things that bring you joy.