What the F… is self care anyway ?
Self care is an essential part of being human in our world. The normalization of self care is amazing as it gives us permission to break the cycle the elders in our life set early on, I strongly believe the acts of self love & care practiced by our parents and grand parents was done purely in the name of survival. From my experience and observation their self care was very conditional because momentum within society was dependent on maintaining this forced perfect picture .
The lines between self care and self improvement I think can be very blurry at times, my thoughts were proven correct according to self care coach Gracy Obuchowicz most people approach self care with the thought of making themselves better ; she than goes on to mention how self improvement comes from a perfectionist mindset were we think we are are convinced there’s something extremely wrong with us that we need to fix because the laziness and procrastination. Gracy goes on to state self care is different because its about allowing yourself to have nurturing of life right now. I would challenge that and say self care is not one straight line and I’m not completely sure it can be so fully removed from self improvement.
Self care is beautifully messy it’s leaving your house to go for a walk when you’ve been hiding in for two weeks, self care is taking the time to cook something delicious no matter how simple or plating the take out on a plate when its the last thing you want to be doing, self care is spending an extra 20 minutes under the warm water in the shower to meditate breathe and center yourself, its choosing to get your laundry done even if you have to drop it off. Proper Self care is commitment to ones self it is rooted to your self esteem, feeling good , to loving yourself right here right now in the moment flaws and all.
In this age of social media and the outward appearance of perfection the word self care can almost be anxiety inducing to some because the imagery put out there is very one dimensional, with pictures of bubble baths, home facials, solo spa trips etc. when really what’s currently reachable to you is making your bed and spending a quiet day away from your phone laughing at funny videos on youtube. The definitions to what self care is are endless.