Self care is a very un-beautiful thing, and unfortunately it has become another thing women are expected to balance and be good at. We are constantly bombarded with ads for yet another quick fix and millions of products that preach the importance of self care but it isn’t as easy as picking an item from a shelf. Breathe easy, mama. My bet is you are ALREADY practicing many forms of true self care.
I believe that true self-care is far from glamorous, but one hundred percent worth it.
It is making a spreadsheet of your debt, creating a budget, and then printing out bank statements at the end of every month to hold yourself accountable.
It is enforcing a morning routine and getting out of bed without hitting “snooze”.
It is cooking a healthy meal, or prepping for the week, and then sticking to it and eating that food instead of stopping through a fast-food lane.
It is oftentimes the least pleasant thing on your to-do list like sweating through a workout, purging clothes from your closet (before they come back in style-hello 90’s kids), or getting a second job so that you can have a savings account and build a retirement plan.
It can be the incredibly hard things we do, like setting boundaries and enforcing them. Or telling a toxic friend/ coworker/ family member that you won’t hold space for them anymore.
True self care isn’t doing a face mask or eating a bunch of cake.
Brianna Wiest says it best;
“It means being the hero of your life, not the victim. It means rewiring what you have until your everyday life isn’t something you need therapy to recover from. It is no longer choosing a life that looks good over a life that feels good. It is giving the hell up on some goals so you can care about others. It is being honest even if that means you aren’t universally liked. It is meeting your own needs so you aren’t anxious and dependent on other people.
It is becoming the person you know you want and are meant to be. Someone who knows that salt baths and chocolate cake are ways to enjoy life – not escape from it.”
True self care is figuring out a way to accept yourself just as you are WHERE you are, before you can begin the journey of loving yourself. After all you cannot be expected to love someone you haven’t even accepted so why try to love yourself without just being YOU first?
