When it comes to self-care, I always say that it's better to be proactive than reactive.
What do I mean by that?
When you're proactive about your self-care, you're making a conscious decision to take care of yourself before anything bad happens. It's a constant process of working and tweaking your approach that keeps things running smoothly.
When it comes to self-care, I always say that it's better to be proactive than reactive.
What do I mean by that?
When you're proactive about your self-care, you're making a conscious decision to take care of yourself before anything bad happens. It's a constant process of working and tweaking your approach that keeps things running smoothly.
When you're preventative, you're not waiting until you're burned out or sick to take care of yourself.
Think of this as a garden.
If you're proactive, you're spending a little bit of time every single day pulling up the weeds, watering the flowers, and cutting the grass. Just a little time each day like this helps keep your garden looking fresh and beautiful, and every time you look over, you're going to think to yourself, ah, my space is so light and beautiful.
On the other hand, if you ignore your garden and you let the weeds take over so they soar up above your head, the flowers are dead and dried up, and grass has gone wild, this is going to take so much more work to get it back to a beautiful condition if that's even possible at that point.
The same logic applies to ourselves and our own state of mind and mental health.
A few years ago, I was working myself to the bone, and I wasn't taking any time for myself. As a result, I got sick. Really sick. It was a tough time for me. I had to take some time off work, my relationships suffered, and I felt like I wanted to die.
It was a big wake-up call.
Now, I make sure to schedule in time for myself every week. I might not always stick to it perfectly, but I'm much better about taking care of myself now. And you know what? I feel so much better because of it! When you prioritize self-care, you're giving yourself the gift of taking care of your most valuable asset: YOU!
Why We Ignore Proactive Self-Care
Why, when we know that self-care is so good for us and makes us feel so much better, do we then find it so easy to neglect it? Why does everything else become a priority over looking after ourselves?
Even writing this down now, it seems so silly that this is something we'd even think of doing, yet it's a choice I indeed struggle with every single day.
Well, there's the clear answer that when things are good, we don't feel like we need to carry on with our self-care practices. Why would we? We're already happy.
It's the exact same reason you'd get your perfectly good condition, and fully functional car serviced. To keep it fully functional.
However, there's a more glaring answer we need to address.
We avoid practicing self-care because we're actually unclear of the real-life benefits it brings to our lives.
We know self-care makes us feel good, and we know it's for the best, but many of us (myself included for so many years) don't actually know what it changes or how it helps. And because we don't know, we're pretty unclear what actually feels good.
On the flip side, we know that our impending deadlines, our currently-irritating partner, or our past traumas cause stress in our lives. Because they're tangible and we're aware of them, we focus on them. It's that simple.
If you can make your self-care benefits just as tangible, you can focus on them and thus are naturally more willing to prioritize them. It's actually crazy how much simpler it makes the process. So, for clarity, I've listed some of the benefits I've personally experienced from making self-care a priority in my own life.
Self-Care Improves Focus
If you've ever found yourself in a situation where you can't focus on anything, no matter how much you try, that's a sign that you're burnt out. It means your brain is trying to protect itself from information overload by shutting down. When this happens, it's because we've been going-going-going for too long without a break.
In order to combat this, we need to make sure we're taking regular breaks and giving our brains time to rest. This is where self-care comes in. By making sure you take some time out for yourself every day, you're giving your brain the opportunity it needs to recharge.
And when your brain is well-rested, you'll find it much easier to focus on the things that are important to you.
Self-Care Reduces Stress Levels
This one is pretty self-explanatory but bears repeating nonetheless because it's so goddamn important. When you take care of yourself and ensure your needs are met, it's impossible not to feel more relaxed and at ease.
It's like when you're on an airplane, and they tell you to put your own oxygen mask on before helping others. It's not because the airline wants you to be a selfish bitch; it's because if you're not taking care of yourself, you won't be able to take care of anyone else. The same goes for stress.
If you're constantly running around trying to take care of everyone and everything else, you'll feel stressed. But if you make sure to schedule in some time for yourself every day, you'll find it much easier to keep your stress levels under control.
Self-Care Helps You to Connect with Yourself
In a world that's constantly trying to get us to focus on everything else but ourselves, it can be hard to remember who we are and what we want in life. But when you prioritize self-care, it gives you the chance to reconnect with yourself and figure out what it is you actually want.
It sounds simple, but so many of us go through life on autopilot, not really taking the time to think about what we want or who we want to be. But when you make self-care a priority, it allows you the time and space to connect with yourself on a deeper level and figure out what it is you truly want out of life.
Self-Care Boosts Your Immune System
This one might surprise you, but it's true! When you take care of yourself and make sure to get enough rest, eat well, and exercise regularly, you're actually giving your immune system a major boost.
And while we all know the importance of a strong immune system, we often don't realize how much our stress levels can impact it. When you're constantly stressed out, your body releases a hormone called cortisol which suppresses the immune system.
So, by making self-care a priority and reducing your stress levels, you're actually giving your immune system the chance to do its job correctly.
Self-Care Improves Your Relationships
This is another one that might seem counterintuitive but bear with me. When you prioritize self-care, you're giving yourself the chance to be a better friend, partner, and family member.
How?
Like the airplane idea, when you take care of yourself and ensure your needs are met, it's impossible not to feel more relaxed and at ease. And when you're not constantly stressed out, you're actually able to be present in your relationships and give them the attention they deserve.
So, by making self-care a priority, you're not only doing yourself a favor, but you're also doing your relationships a favor. Everyone wins!
Thanks for reading and hope you're able to have some kind of takeaway here of why you should be looking after yourself! Again, it sounds so simple, and it's stuff we all know, yet so many of us fail to do it.
Go and look after yourself!
You deserve to be happy and healthy. :) xox
