Why I Love Self Care
Self-care is a really hot topic right now. It’s often glorified as face masks, baths, taking the night off, eating indulgent food, or whatever one fancies. Those things can absolutely be part of it, but it’s different for everyone. It also ignores the harder parts of self-care. Things like finishing tasks you’re putting off, setting boundaries, going to therapy, staying compliant with treatments you don’t like, and many more.
I’m going to be posting about a self-care a lot here, so I’m going to save the harder parts of self-care for another post. There’s so much I have to say that it would never fit all in one post!
If you follow me on instagram, you already know how much I love self-care. I’m always posting about the face masks I’m doing, taking care of my skin, taking care of my hair, and more. While I do truly enjoy taking care of myself in that way, there is a deeper reason for it.
When my health crashed years ago, I struggled with feeling out of control. I couldn’t predict how I would feel one day to the next, I couldn’t commit fully to plans, and I felt like no matter what I did or how many treatments and medications I tried, there was nothing I could do to make any significant difference.
This led to me feeling lost, a little hopeless, and inadequate. I couldn’t control anything in my life, my life was controlling me.
It didn’t happen overnight, but I slowly realized that skincare and haircare especially were activities I really enjoyed. They helped me feel productive, like I could contribute SOMETHING to myself, and were relatively low energy tasks that kept me distracted from the stress of my life.
It finally hit me one day that by doing self-care activities, that’s how I take back a little bit of control in a very tangible way. I could literally see the difference almost immediately and it only encouraged me to keep going.
These days, taking care of myself is one of the healthiest coping mechanisms that I have. When I feel overwhelmed, my health isn’t doing well, or I’m stressed by circumstances out of my control, I saunter right over to the bathroom and do whatever I’m capable of doing on that given day. On a hard day, sometimes it’s as simple as just washing my face while on a better day I could end up doing my makeup, taking pictures, and then doing TWO face masks! It just depends and I’m gentle with myself on the days that I don’t have as much to give.
Do you love self-care? If you do, check out my post on my favorite daily self-care practices and comment what yours are!
