I cannot stress enough the importance of self-care. Self-care is when an individual mindfully sets aside time to take care of themselves. Finding time for yourself allows you to check in on your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Practicing healthy self-care can help boost self-esteem, develop self-acceptance, and allow yourself to accept life’s challenges in stride.
However, self-care is often not very pretty. When taking time to collect your belongings, this forces you to face the ugly truths. Self-care comes in many shapes and forms; this may be looking at a spreadsheet of your accumulating debt or waking up earlier in the morning to cook healthy meals. An important component of self-care is to stop running away from your problems and to instead, formulate a solution.
In 2018, self-care is often portrayed as using salt baths and treating yourself to a slice of CoGro cake. While those types of things will momentarily brighten up your day, they are not the necessary steps that need to be taken to build yourself a life. Forcing yourself to go to the gym or sitting yourself down to figure out a plan B for your career are the critical life building self-care techniques you should participate in. Such techniques are “ugly,” because truthfully, no one wants to accept that they’re solely responsible for their problems – but these steps are ones that will help you grow.
It’s not fair that often self-care activities are the ones you want to avoid the most. You shouldn’t resort to self-care because you’re exhausted and need a break; it should be a strategy to better yourself and your future. Oftentimes, self-care forces you to acknowledge your failures and re-formulate your next step, which is greatly dependent on letting go. Prioritizing yourself means it’s time to carve a new pathway and let go of unnecessary accessories, such as toxic friends or bad eating habits. These life changes are never easy, but in the long run, yield the best results.
If you are involved with consumer self-care, it’s because you’re disconnected with actual self-care. Keeping yourself in check and making positive choices for overall long-term wellness is what encourages healthy individual growth. By becoming the hero in your life instead of the victim, you can stop escaping your issues.
Take a second to reflect on yourself, looking closely at your flaws. In doing so, you can work to become the individual you aspire to be.