What is self-care and why is it important?
Self-care is often misunderstood. Many people confuse self-care with self-improvement. Self-care is caring for oneself in the moment, right now and every day. Its looking after yourself emotionally, spiritually, physically, professionally and personally.
Over the next little while I will be taking some time to blog about each element of self-care I have listed above and what I do and have done to keep myself well and some of the mistakes that I have also made along the way!
Self-care is making sure that you are meeting your own needs first and that is not selfish, it is necessary. You cannot take care of others if you don’t first take care of yourself. We often feel like we don’t have time to care for ourselves, I once thought this too, however, I soon realized that if I make excuses not to care for myself then I am essentially lying to myself and others. By not taking time to care for myself I was in fact doing others a disservice too, I was also setting a bad example, becoming resentful and codependent.
I had to do a lot of self-reflection and at first it was hard for me to take the steps to care for me. It just did not feel right somehow. However, you can start by simply just making sure your own needs are being met. Every day when I wake up, I take time for myself, I take a moment and let myself just be in it. We often perform self-care without realizing it too. Brushing our teeth, bathing, taking our medication are all acts of self-care. Some of us can also find those tasks daunting too and that’s ok.
Self-care doesn’t have to be all out or nothing, you can take small steps and create a habit that you will come to look forward to and enjoy. Self-care should make you feel successful, it is not over indulgence of things such as wine or food it’ s creating balance so that we feel better about the choices we make.
Caring for our bodies is a great first step. I know that can be very hard for some. I myself struggled with this one too. I did not see myself as needing or deserving to be cared for, however, that’s another story and very important aspect of self-care that I won’t get in to right now.
What things do you do to keep yourself well?
What excuses do you make to avoid self- care?
I was once told that excuses are just well-planned lies – so now when I make excuses (which I still do), I call out the lies and question their validity.
Self-care is a process, isn’t always easy, but to me, it is always worth it.
Collescapes 