Planning for Growth: Self-Care Plans by Coach Athena Thomas

Planning for Growth: Self Care Plans

They succeed instinctively because they each know their own temp and recognize it in the individuals and institutions with who they collaborate.” T.D. Jakes

Bishop T.D. Jakes wrote a book on instincts to enlighten the world about tapping into their inner being and living instinctively. The word “instinct” sends our minds to the animal kingdom but humans have natural instincts too.  Animals rely on their instincts for survival or else they become prey for predators. It’s something that occurs naturally and is not taught. Using your instincts is crucial to establishing a good self care plan.

Do you know yourself well enough to live by instincts? Living by instinct requires you to trust that little voice inside. This occurs when you take time to learn yourself as an individual. Intimately knowing self is the core of self-love and self-care. Proper self-care and self-nurture leads to growth. You make time for everyone except self, which stagnates individual instinctive growth.

Your instincts are at the core of your being, your spirit, your gut, your third eye, your chakras, your internal compass. Learning who you are instinctively takes time which means you will need to allow more time for self. Instinctive growth helps you tap into your core, and learn who you are, what you are naturally good at, what you are passionate about, and, how you learn, how you fall, your strengths, your weak areas, and more.  Use the information you discover to create your self-care plan so you can grow instinctively.

Instinctive Growth & Self Care Plans

Instinctive growth involves listening to your inner being to move along the path of self-care. How does one grow instinctively? It requires being in sync with yourself, God (Universe, Higher Power), your environments, your relationships, and your purpose.

The process of instinctive growth includes:

  1. Growing from the inner being outwardly
  2. Adopting or working from a growth mindset
  3. Recognizing constant growth within you
  4. Seeking opportunities to grow

Use stagnation as a tool to measure and review areas in your life for possible pruning. When you are in tune with your instincts you will recognize when you  need to establish boundaries, which helps develop self-discipline.

Path to Purpose and Self Care Plans

The path begins with a decision. A decision to live on purpose, thus making self-care your first priority. Do you believe there is more you could be doing, desire more peace, joy, and fulfillment? If yes, then you are ready to begin your journey, your path to purpose. But this realization also comes with the acceptance that self-care and purpose can be overwhelming, so where do you start?

Great! You decided to move forward with purpose and self-care. Next, learn what it means to live on purpose, how it relates to your inner being, how purpose influences your instinctive growth, and how to use everything you discover as growth steps in your self-care plan. Establishing your path to purpose will touch all aspects of your life through your growth steps, which allows you to implement a self-care plan that fuels your instinctive growth.

Learning to Grow Instinctively

You are born with an instinct towards purpose but may not know how to take hold of it. That’s where growth is necessary. Learning who you are is the first growth step to in your self-care plan. Which may require a fresh start in some areas. You have to open yourself to learning self much like a baby learns self.

For example, babies rely on their instincts for survival and self-discovery. In their first year of life, they discover self first through their five senses. They discover their body through taste and touch, they discover their voice through hearing and speaking and eventually they discover they can move their body on their own, they can sit, then stand, then walk, then run, then talk, and it goes on and on.

Once they have discovered all their natural abilities as a youngster, they are nurtured by their parents, their environment, and they grow! They receive input from their parents, their environments, their connections to people, and their inner self.

But what happens if the child doesn’t grow in this natural process? They become adults with incomplete foundations who don’t know how to nurture and care for self, much less others. As a result, they continue to grow physically but may be stagnated emotionally or spiritually. Your childhood growth pattern determines the path to purpose and self-care.

Growth Step #1: Go back to the basics. Rely on your inner self to learn who you are and use what you discover to grow instinctively.

The Growth Formula

The Growth Formula is designed to assist you with establishing a path to purpose and self-care plan. It involves your whole being and tapping into all resources including your Spirit (God, Universe, Higher Power), your Instincts (Self), and your Focus (Mind). So all are needed because each one brings a different perspective, tool, guidance, and power to your path.

Spirit + Instincts + Focus = Purpose (Growth)

Following this growth formula will fuel you on your path to purpose. It teaches you how to use all your resources to reach your goals. Once you discover your individual design, you will begin to see which resources yield the most return for you.

Realizing the importance of growing daily, where you are stagnate, and what is involved in each part of the Growth Formula is the first step in accomplishing growth and starting a self-care plan. The graphic below shows the Circle of Purpose and how each part of you relates holistically to your path to purpose and self-care. Establishing a path to purpose is the first step in implementing your self-care plan.

Circle of Purpose by Coach Athena
Circle of Purpose by Coach Athena

Finally, if you are still breathing then you are still growing and living on purpose. Therefore, to accomplish growth you will need to understand how spirituality, instincts, focus, and your mindset contribute to your growth and self-care. Everyday should be an opportunity to practice self-care, it should become like air, you need it to survive.


Athena Thomas

Athena Thomas is a Certified Life Coach and Founder of The Life Calling Coach and Yes You Can Today Christian Life Coaching. She has a specialty in using vision boards to establish a path to life calling and spiritual growth. She is the Endurance Program Director for Women Offering Wealth, a non-profit organization. She is also the founder and facilitator of the Sister Circle Support Group for women, a program for survivors of domestic violence and the Circle of Endurance Support Group.

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