Self Care is Self Love <3

You have a whole Sunday to yourself. You wake up late, take a nice hot or cold shower, wear your comfiest clothing, read a good book, drink a cup of coffee for breakfast. In the afternoon you will watch as much Netflix as you can, do a mini art project, cook your and cook your favorite lunch meal. In the evening you can go take a walk at your local park,eat a meal at your local restaurant, and wrap it up with a quick journal;. A reset or a relaxation day is something we all need from time to time. For most people, it is deemed with “Self-Care Saturday or Sunday'' or frankly any day of the week. On this day, people engage themselves in activities that take care of their mental, physical, or emotional health. It is a day to do whatever we want. Different people see self-care differently and we all engage self care in different ways.

For me self-care is taking care of myself. In today’s busy world where we are constantly working, grinding, and being as productive as we can be, and sometimes we forget to take time out of our day to just relax and chill. Working is fun, not going to lie, but when you overwork yourself and take little to no breaks, it can get overwhelming, both physically and emotionally. Spending time with yourself is so important to not just take a break, but to actually get to know yourself better. I think sometimes as people we are so used to working for others or doing the best for others that we forget about ourselves. Being in tune with your own self helps you be a better person to advise others. It sounds complicated, right? In simple (or more complicated) words, you are human and you deserve to take care of yourself in order to become a better version of yourself to help others become a better version of themselves.

Think of it this way. Society, for the most part, runs on individuals doing their role or part for the betterment of others; however, how can one individual play their part if they are not completely in tune with themselves? Everyone has found themselves tired and not wanting to work, and quite frankly, wanting to give up sometimes. When we feel like that, it is difficult to do your job or perform your role because well you don't want to do it. So we take a break in order to reset and get back into work. In our break, we may not be doing our normal job and thus, the small role we played in society is gone so whatever small impact you made is not being created. My point is, it is important to take care of yourself first and make sure you are okay before you go and do other things. Because sometimes what you do may feel forced and not natural and not be your best potential. Keep in mind that what I am saying is a very basic scenario and life is not basic. Life is complicated with a lot of twists and turns and different people have different experiences. All I am trying to highlight is the importance of self-care and doing it has profound impacts.

So what is self care? It can really be anything. There are no rules or boundaries to what you do. If it is taking care of yourself, anyone will do anything that they enjoy. The main idea is that you should be doing these activities only for your own betterment and no one else’s. It can be one small activity such as journaling, painting, or working out that can be done every day or it can be treating yourself to a movie, a dinner date, or a trip from time to time. It is so important to reward ourselves with what we deserve because we all work hard and most of us have good intentions. Self-care is not something that anyone can just learn in a day, week, month, or year. It is rather a fluid habit that we shape and change as time shifts and circumstances change. The bottom line is to just take a small bit of time for you and only you. I don't mean to sound cheesy, but after all there is only one type of you. People are their own unique person and no one has the same story ever. So why not celebrate yourself while we can still all walk on this planet?

Self care is not SELFish; it is the road to SELF love.