With the combined rise of social media & the new openness surrounding talking about one’s mental health, self care is something that I have heard a lot about lately. I never really thought much about the topic of self care, because I thought that it was always a given that you should take care of yourself in order to live a happy and healthy life. But something that I have recently learned, is that self care isn’t just about eating your vegetables and keeping up on attending your doctors appointments. I came across the quote below on Stephanie Shephard’s instagram story a couple of months ago. If you aren’t aware of who Steph Shep is, she was the once long time assistant to Kim Kardashian. The quote was rumored to have been posted after Kim fired Steph for some differences that the two could not settle. Whether you know what I’m talking about or not, I think that the quote posted speaks volumes to what the importance of self care really is.
Yes, self care can be eating your vegetables and going to checkups, but it could just as easily be eating a whole pizza by yourself or skipping out on a scheduled appointment in order to take a minute to do nothing. Self care is doing the thing that you need most in that moment. It could be anything as simple as turning off your phone if you need an escape, being 10 minutes late for work because you purposely got off on the wrong train stop in order to have a couple of extra minutes to yourself, or even laying on the floor in the middle of your room on a summer afternoon with the windows open. Or it could be much more than that. It could be spending all of your savings on a trip that is going to make you happy, it could be letting go of a person who you love but you know that is not right for you, or it could be spending an ungodly amount of money on something that you don’t need but that you want. My point is, self care could be a wide variety of things. It just depends on what you need most at the time. What that is today may not be the same thing that you need in the morning, next Tuesday, next fall or even 2 years from now. But regardless of what it may be or when it is that you need it, it is so so important to always take the time to do it. Even if it may not seem like much, it really does make a difference. I think the rule of thumb should be to treat yourself like you would treat a significant other whom you absolutely adore; give yourself that same amount of love and affection. Take the time to acknowledge that you deserve the little things and the big things too, whatever they may be.
in search of something better ~ 