Let's Be Boring!
7/7/2020 9:04:00 AM
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Behavioral Health
You may see self-care as the luxurious act of pampering yourself. You may have thought to yourself:
And then decide to begin a self-care practice immediately. That is, right after those things on your to-do list. And after you help your friend move. And when you get your next paycheck, so you can afford candles. Maybe self-care starts next week???
Consistently practicing self-care can feel impossible. One reason why?
You’ve Got the Wrong Definition
Once upon a time, self-care meant “care of self.” But today’s image and social media-driven culture points us toward a new definition of self-care: prolonged pleasurable time resulting in peace, happiness and beauty.
In theory, it’s lovely and filled with things we enjoy. But the problem is that this version of self-care takes a lot of energy. It is a massive undertaking. It requires a very specific process with a very specific result: create a peaceful space, sink into presence and reflection and come out refreshed and filled with self-love (and perhaps with better hair).
The roots of self-care are still there, though, if you look hard enough. Engaging in practices that prevent the decline of our health and well-being is a powerful thing. Yet the social media, hash-tag version of self-care means we are only successful if our actions result in self-improvement. The result? We tell ourselves to create a “#selfcare practice,” but we don’t. We simply don’t have the energy.
Instead, let’s just be boring about it. We don’t need fancy things to practice self-care. We simply need to knowingly engage in practices for our own health and well-being. Sometimes they’re big, sometimes small, but they are ours, and they work.
https://www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/December-2019/Why-You-Struggle-with-Self-Care