Y’know good people, I am gonna just lay this down:
Y’all gotta stop treating self-care like it’s an optional extra!
- Like it’s the thing you will do… once all the important sh*t is done.
- Like it’s the side order of fries rather than the burger.
- Like it’s an optional extra to think about…when you have time.
- Like it’s a freaking LUXURY.
- We treat self-care like there is NO COST to NOT doing it.
Be super clear:
If you are not taking care of your precious self
And by that, I mean not just your physical wellbeing
But your mental, emotional and spiritual health too
You will be practicing self-care-compensation instead: and it costs us far more than genuine self-care.
There is an immediate cost to not taking care of ourselves: it’s expensive and it looks like this:
- We will be drinking wine to feel better after a hard day because we do not have a regular mental or emotional health practice to tap into to unwind and rebalance. Expensive.
- We will be trying on 15 outfits and creating a floordrobe or buying clothes in sizes we don’t want to compensate for the activity we didn’t do. Expensive.
- We will be buying shiny new shoes because they are the only thing we can guarantee to fit to compensate for the stress-eating we did. Expensive.
- We will be losing our rag at someone we didn’t mean to, in a way we regret because we didn’t do our own emotional boundary work before we had the conversation. Expensive.
- We will be feeling pissed off or sad when certain situations come up and reaching for our phone, wasting hours, as we endlessly scroll as an adult pacifier because we are not processing our emotions in a safe and considered way. Expensive.
- We will feel tired and reach for extra coffee, tea, and energy drinks to keep going and pep us up because we are not listening and caring for the very real rest needs of our body. Expensive.
Here’s the thing.
If you think that self-care can always be put off til later…
It can’t.
You are ALWAYS taking care of yourself – and soothing uncomfortable emotions – it’s just HOW are you doing it?
Are you doing it in a conscious way that elevates your mind and body in a way that you choose that benefits you today, but also tomorrow?
Or are you doing self-care unconsciously in a way that just gets you through the day, numbing out, reducing anxiety. Mindless scrolling. Eating. Gossiping. Drinking. Faffing.
Room for improvement – right?
It’s time to start treating self-care
And I mean real self-care, (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual) not just booking a massage once a year!
Not as an optional extra.
But as an ongoing essential part of healthy mind maintenance.
Quality self-care is the investment in ourselves that gives us the biggest return;
Because if we don’t make time for health, sooner or later we have to make time for illness of one sort or another.
Let’s commit to taking self-care off the optional extra list, and make it the main event.
