Self-Care Begins with YOU

The definition of self-care, while seemingly self-explanatory, has a multitude of interpretations. Some interpret self-care as a spa day, a nail or hair appointment, going out for a beer with the guys, exercising, eating healthy, or even spending a day at home relaxing. No matter what your interpretation is, self-care is exactly what it sounds like -- something you can do YOURSELF to care for YOU.

Self-care has become increasingly important over the years as we have discovered the true importance of mental health and ending the stigmas around it. The saying is true, one cannot have a healthy body without a healthy mind. A person can exercise four hours a day and eat the healthiest diet imaginable, but with turmoil in the brain, our bodies will never truly be healthy.

Acts of self-love are important ways that we can care for ourselves, mind-body-spirit-environment. The greatest act of self-love is dropping self-criticism. We are our own biggest and harshest critics. Why? Why do we hold ourselves to different standards than we hold other people? Why is it acceptable for the company CEO to not exercise because “he works 14 hours a day” but we beat ourselves up because we only worked eight hours and should “have no excuse?” Why did I beat myself up for quitting my job of ten and a half years so I could work from home and spend more time with my children when it was completely acceptable for my best friend to be a stay-at-home-mom? Why is the question of the day…

One of the main reasons that we self-criticize is to motivate, but is this really the healthiest way to acquire motivation? What if we changed our thought…what if instead of self-criticizing for motivation, we did something because it made us feel well? Feel happy. Feel healthy. Feel free. That is the definition of self-care, right? Something we can do ourselves? What if we exercised before or after our eight-hour work day because the endorphins were a natural mood enhancer? What if we ate healthy because it helped diminish brain fog by filling our bodies with nutrients? What if we went to that spa day because massage can release tension in the muscles making our bodies feel free and relaxed? What if we did things because we wanted to, not because we felt like we had to? What if we changed our thought just in that slight way to decrease that turmoil in our brains? What if we gave power back to ourselves so that we could truly engage in self-care and self-love, holding those definitions true? What if we realized that our feelings were coming from thought in the moment and being resilient is not being bound by our circumstances or our past? Thought is powerful and thought is a driving-force behind self-care. See that’s the funny thing about thought – the nature of thought is that it is always moving. And if thought is always moving, that means we can be too.