As college students with busy school and social schedules, we often hear that it’s important to make time for self care, and to make sure that you are taking the time to take care of yourself even amidst a super busy schedule. This has always been something that I keep in mind when I plan out my schedule for the week. I always try to carve at least an hour or two into my schedule to do something important for me, and to just treat myself to keep my energy levels and my vibes high. But I learned what self soothing is, and how it differs from self care, and the distinction has definitely helped me to redefine my entire self care routine.Â
Basically, self soothing is like a subset of self care, but it kinds of includes anything that you would do after a long, stressful day in order to make yourself feel better (essentially, what you do to help soothe yourself and your nerves). I definitely think that what I was calling my “self care routine” definitely was more self soothing, and that it was almost all reactionary, or me doing things after something has already happened.Â
Using this definition, self care is more of a preventative term that includes things you do in order to prevent those stressful feelings, but these often look a lot less glamorous, and include less “treating yourself” experiences than self soothing. This looks like working out in the morning if you know it starts your day off right, or even just brushing your teeth and washing your face in the morning in order to keep yourself healthy.Â
After learning about both of these definitions, I reflected on my own self care routines, and I realized that a lot of it would be considered self soothing, and that I was really good at reacting to stressful situations, but that an ideal self care routine would have more of those actual self care tasks, that I could use to really maintain a good vibe and energy, rather than just always bringing it back when I feel like its dimmed a bit after a long day or week. So, I’ve started to be more proactive with this, and make sure that I am incorporating all sorts of tasks in my routine, even just planning time to make a good breakfast before a busy day or spending some time taking a walk during a long study session.Â
I think the awesome thing about self care is that it can look like something different for everyone, and that everyone needs different things to fill their cup up at the end of the day. But I think that knowing the difference between the two can really help add a whole new element to the routine, and can help make it more effective and better for you and your mental and physical health. I definitely recommend trying to make sure that you have the right balance between these two, and also spend time thinking about what balance is right for you as well!