There is a huge self-care movement happening right now.
But do we really know what self-care is?
Sure, it can be..
- Buying yourself some flowers
- Getting your hair done
- Painting your nails
- Eating a salad
Those things are nice. But they are external.
They are the temporary plaster to cover up what is underneath.
For me, the things that have made the biggest shifts in my life have been doing the inside stuff too.
The stuff that isn’t pretty and we can easily ignore when we are busy (but the more we ignore it the louder it shouts).
It is getting down and dirty, painfully honest and looking at yourself directly in the mirror and saying ‘I am not prepared to pretend it’s OK any more – where am I not honouring my true self?’
It is saying ‘Never again will I say ‘I am fine’ when really I am feeling taken for granted and misunderstood. I want to do the things that make me feel alive’.
For me true self-care is saying ‘I am ready to face my fears and have the difficult conversations’
‘I am ready to forgive and let go of things I have been holding onto’
‘I am ready to face the things I am ignoring’
‘I am ready to pull up my sleeves and do the tough stuff’
Like saying no to a coffee because every time you spend time with that person you don’t leave feeling good.
Or asking your partner to kiss you the way they did when you first met and having an honest about why you’ve both let it slip.
Or forgiving yourself for the years of critical self-talk and learning why that voice is there in the first place.
I believe true self-care is looking at the parts of ourselves that make us uncomfortable so that we can learn to fully love and accept all of ourselves and comfortably and confidently stand in our power and say ‘I like who I am so it doesn’t matter what you think’.
Self-care is loving who you are and honouring what you need at your very core.
What do you think?
What does self-care mean to you?
