I first heard of the concept of self-care during high school. Surfing the internet, I came across a list of things you could do if you ever felt anxious, upset, or mentally-run down. The list consisted of things as simple as “take a shower” to as extravagant as “go on a spontaneous road trip” and everything in between. The discovery of this list and everything on it has changed my life, but not in the way one would expect. I don’t take spontaneous road trips every time I feel upset, and the option of taking a nice bubble bath has pretty much been eliminated since I moved in my dorm, but these principles and this mindset have benefitted me in ways I couldn’t have imagined.
For me, the structure of my day-to-day life has shifted tremendously since coming to college. I no longer operate on an 8am-3pm school schedule with 2 hours of extracurriculars in the afternoon and a home-cooked meal waiting for me when I get back to my house. My life operates on a much more unstructured, yet hectic and busy plane. I’m in class for three hours a day, choose all of my meals, and have to devote many hours to studying every day. With that kind of lifestyle and self-scheduling, falling into a spiral of bad decision-making and unhealthy habits can be easier, mentally and physically. It was out of this stressful time of change that my lens of what self-care truly is shifted tremendously. Yes, self-care is taking time out of your day to journal, go on a walk, or calling your best friend, but self-care should be something you practice in every decision you make.
Adopting this practice does not mean that you stop carving out time to be by yourself and do things that feed your soul. On the contrary, you will be expanding your list of self-care activities by making sure that every decision you make is a self-care one. Before making decisions about how to spend your time, who to surround yourself with, or when you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, ask yourself, “Is this a self-care decision? Am I practicing love and compassion for myself by doing this? Can I deal with the consequences if this decision does not play out the way I hope it will?” By adding this strategy to your toolbelt of ways to navigate situations, people, and decisions, coming up with a clear path that will help you learn, grow, and thrive will become easier and easier as time goes on. After a while you will come to know and love yourself through your decisions that you won’t have to consciously ask yourself these questions every time you’re faced with a situation. It will simply become a part of how you live and carry yourself. The love you show yourself in every moment of your life will be apparent to everyone surrounding you, and it will lead you to making the best, personalized choices for you that you can. Self-care isn’t just a list; it’s a lifestyle.