What Self Care Means to Me

Whether you call it self-care, good health, treat yo self, or wellness it all amounts to one thing:

taking care of yourself inside and out.

Or at least that's how I look at it!

Throughout my journey with mental health, self care has been something that’s been essential for wellness. Taking care of your body and your mind not only helps you feel good. It also helps boost your self confidence.

Now stay with me here.

For me self care means work.

It doesn't mean go to Trader Joe's and buy 3 spinach cheese dips and 4 bags of chips and chocolate ice cream oh and maybe a face mask. Not that I don't love a good face mask, but these things are surface level.

And while a face mask is a great way to pamper yourself. Self care when you're healing your mental health means looking deeper.When I think about self care I think about looking inward; a check in if you will. Taking a step back from all the noise of the world and seeing how you're doing or just simply letting yourself relax.

Cause guess what? You probably fucking deserve it.

It can be really easy to become enthralled in your day to day bullshit. You go through the motions sometimes, its okay we all do. Self care is all about popping back into reality and taking care of yourself.

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Here is a list of things I do to practice self care

Keep a diary |

write down what’s going on in my head

Practice yoga | here's a great video I like

Detox from Social Media |

spend the weekend filled with actives or relaxing and forget about the buzz of social media and emails from work

Breathing |

Taking a few minutes to deep breathe throughout the day can make a huge difference in calming your body and mind

Organize |

Creating routine and order throughout your daily life be it having an organized beauty cabinet or meal prepping

Eat well |

Whatever this means to you and makes your body feel good. Creating healthy and responsible eating habits for your body is a way to remind your body that its being taken care of

Go to therapy! |

I am well aware of this not being accessible to everyone

here are some tips on what to do if this is you

Walking |

gets you in action and out of any mind set you might get stuck in. Physically moving your body helps all sorts of stuff I’m way under qualified to tell you about but you can read about it from the experts here.

Stretching |

has the same effect and is especially helpful for those busy days! I like to watch a short and easy yoga video on youtube! Here are some I like!

Reading |

While there are so many self-care books out there i could go on recommending them for days. But honestly not every method or way of thinking of going to help you. But making the conscious decision to go to the bookstore choose the book and work at it... means that you’re willing to put the work in to work on your growth.

Reading is also another really effective way to get out of your head that isn’t sitting in front of a screen!