THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-CARE

In recent times the news has been a buzz about self-care because people are realizing how important self-care is to their well-being. Self-care means you’re present and doing the little things that nurture, nourish, and makes you feel great about yourself. It could be as simple as carving out the time to take a shower, groom your hair, brush your teeth, and eat a healthy meal or include at least one healthy food in your diet at each meal. Self-care is about managing yourself and your emotions. 

Self-care is so important because it is the first step in defeating depression. When we take the time to care for ourselves, we are loving ourselves and when we love ourselves it is harder for us to become depressed. Self-love is also the pathway to accepting God’s love and love from our families, friends, and fellowmen. Self-care contributes to a healthy boost in self-confidence which empowers us to create the future we want and the discipline to set goals and stick to them. It also helps us to make the right choices and tough it out when life gets challenging instead of folding under or running away. It inspires us to expect more from ourselves and others, creating our opportunities by looking for the open doors and walking through them right away. However, sometimes it is necessary to pry the door open so that we can get noticed or promoted to better jobs we are qualified for. 

Self-care helps us feel better about ourselves hence we show up looking and feeling good and this brings an abundance of light into our soul which chases the darkness away. Did you know one sign of depression is a lack of self-care? When we do not love ourselves, we show up looking anyhow and it is extremely difficult to care for ourselves. Many of us secretly suffer from depression because we have lost the will to be kind to ourselves. Self-care is simple all it takes is a willingness to do a bit of the hard things every day. Some are clinically depressed and will need help through therapeutic interventions or even medication. However, it takes effort to get to where you want to go and you must turn up to counselling, take part in therapy and take the medication if necessary. 

According to Psychology Today (2021), self-care is doing the things that you would rather put off because they make you uncomfortable. It’s about accepting personal failures, and relationships that let you down and becoming determined to find new strategies. It’s about forgiving those who wronged us, letting go of that which you cannot control or change with acceptance. It’s also about being willing to disappoint some people by ending toxic relationships. Self-care can also be about putting your life on hold to care for someone in need and at other times just putting yourself above those who are very demanding of your time. Ultimately, it is about living the life you choose on your terms instead of sleepwalking through it.

Self-care is taking it easy on yourself instead of always pushing yourself to be perfect. It’s about letting your house remain messy when you are tired of cleaning or don’t have the time. It is about knowing yourself and understanding what drives you to decide what changes are important for your life. Self-care is not about believing that you must be constantly busy to feel important as this will lead to burn-out and lead to self-sabotage. It is about taking the time to care for you when there is brokenness in your life that needs fixing. When you care for yourself, you realize that loving yourself and being compassionate might help you solve most of your problems Psychology Today, (2021).

When you care for yourself, you are the winner instead of the loser. You create a life you truly enjoy instead of the one that you hate. It is not creating a fake life but one that aligns with who you are. Sometimes it will mean giving up some of your goals to live a more balanced life. It’s choosing to decide from a place of calm and peace that will be long-lasting. It is looking to yourself to meet your own needs instead of others Psychology Today, (2021).

Self-care is living an authentic and meaningful life. It’s having an awareness of the benefits of a nice massage or green juice to enhance life but not as escapism. 

Reference

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-emotional-meter/202104/what-it-really-means-take-care-yourself