Well, hello sweet spotters. Thank you for joining me here on The Sweet Spot on Self Care Saturday. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet. I'm your host here on The Sweet Spot. It's been my pleasure this week to join you on a resetting journey every day this week. We found a way to reset. We figured it out. And today here on Self-Care Saturday, we're going to talk about the luxury we never give ourselves. Self-care. We don't have time. It's just too much. It's just too hard. It's difficult to care for ourselves when there's so many demands around us. And that's why we call Saturday Self-Care Saturday. Even though for many of us, it's the one day that we have to catch up with ourselves, to hit the grocery, to get the car washed, to go to the dry cleaners, uh, do things around the house, do chores, whatever we have to do. Usually we're busy on Saturday too, but we force ourselves to take time out for ourselves. Because here's the thing: if we don't care for us, and something happens to us, nothing gets done. We need us. You need you, and I need me. And the ancient wisdom puts it this way in Matthew 11. Take a real rest, walk with me, and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I'll repeat that. Take a real rest, walk with me and work with me. Watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. That's in Matthew 11, verse 29, the message Bible, much more modern, but I like it. You see, unforced rhythms are the key. Connecting to your divine purpose, your divine source, your divine rest, that's the key. When was the last time your life felt like an unforced rhythm? Andre Lorde said something that fit right into this. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it's self-preservation. And that's right. And for many of us, caring for ourselves, it's not just self-preservation, I think it's also self-respect. And the neuroscience is clean and solid. When you slow down with intention, there is a cranial nerve in your brain called the vagus nerve. We've talked about it before. It's, I think, the longest nerve in the body. It runs from the brain all the way down to your gut, it's all the way through your body. And this is the main highway of something called the parasympathetic nervous system. The part of your body that's responsible for calming your heart rate, softening the tension in your body, and easing all the stress hormones. That's right, this vagus nerve is critical to your relaxation, to your ability to rest and digest, and it's tied into your longevity. And when you take a deep breath and you exhale, you switch this whole vagus nerve system, this parasympathetic nervous system, on. And it tells your system we're safe. And you can damp down all the noise right now. Most people, most of us, we never even feel this because we never pause enough to even take a deep breath. So let's do that right now. Let's take a deep breath right now. In through your nose. That's right. Hold it, hold it, and then a slow exhale out through the mouth. That's right. Always let the exhale be longer than the inhale, and you will feel the relaxation. So today, a very practical reset here on self-care Saturday is to put one hand on your chest or on your stomach and try taking a slow breath in through the nose. And then exhale even slower. Like you're letting go of something heavy. Whisper quietly to yourself when you when you do this. Say to yourself something like, I deserve the care that I give to everybody else. I deserve the care that I give to everybody else. You know who will thank you for that immediately? You do that for just 60 seconds, my friend. And your vagus nerve will hear it. Your body will respond to it. Your spirit will rise from it. Self-care isn't about escaping your life, right? It's about supporting the version of you that has to show up for life every day. So it's really important that we care for you. We take the car to the car wash, right? We take care of the house. Something goes wrong in the house, we're always fixing it. So why not pay attention to our bodies, our minds, and our spirits by giving us a few moments of self-care today? That's the reset. I'm Dr. Derek Sweet, and you're listening to this sweet spot. This is finished. Oh, this is a finished strong. This is self-care Saturday. We already finished strong on Friday. This is self-care Saturday. And if you felt that this self-care Saturday message hit you, I want you to not just keep it for yourself, share it with somebody else who needs to pay attention to their self-care. And bless them today. I'll see you tomorrow. You know what tomorrow is? It's slowdown Sunday. And I'm looking forward to slowing down with you. Love and blessings. I'll see you tomorrow. Be well, my friend.