I recently came across a post on self-care that MADE me cringe.
The author of the article shared that self-care is so much more than yoga, bubble baths, and lattes, which I resonate with, but did so in a tone that communicated that if you were doing these things as part of your self-care, that you had self-care wrong in some way. The writer listed out that self-care is actually x, y, z, and not a, b, and c. My rub and disappointment with the piece is that self-care, to me, looks different for each and every one of us.
For the person suffering from depression, self-care could be the simple act of getting out of bed for the day.
For the person recovering from an eating disorder, self-care could be eating a piece of bread and sitting through the discomfort afterwards.
For the mom of three kids, self-care could be taking a mindful moment behind closed doors to quickly regain her composure with a deep breath.
Whether your self-care is treating yourself to a delicious yummy treat, or saying no to an unnecessary purchase because you are saving your money for that bigger, grander, more pressing thing, your self-care is purely yours and I am not here to tell you whether it is good or bad.
Self-care is self-love.
It is what we express to ourselves that we are worthy of our own care. In my opinion, if you are out there taking intentional time to love on you, to be kind to your body, and to give back to yourself in some way (when you are that person who is constantly giving, giving, and giving to others), then I want to celebrate that, rather than spread a very harmful message that in some way your self-care is less than or not enough.
Articles like the one I am describing just go against the entire core of self-care, which is rooted from a place of love. Whatever manner and way that you are expressing care for your own body and mind in an intentional, self-loving way, is completely and absolutely yours. And so today, I want to share you with my array of self-care things- my very own top 30 list of what I believe self-care can be. Remember, they are simply a tiny sample of some of my very own self-care things. The purpose in sharing it is to hopefully shed light on self-care taking on many, many looks. It is not a one and done category of things. I encourage you to take a moment to make your own list and see how many you can come up with freely. Bonus points for implementing at least one per day!