What Self-Care Truly Means

Self-care. Self-love. The buzzwords on the internet of late.
We come across posts and articles about self-care almost everywhere on the Internet. It is projected as having warm baths, scented candles, pampering yourself with chocolates or cookies, having an at-home spa and watching Netflix.
While all those ARE forms of self-care, it isn’t limited to just that.

I’ve been contemplating over what it actually means, delving deeper into the entire idea. This blog post is my attempt at putting forth what true self-care means to me.

Caring for yourself doesn’t always have to look nice, warm and cozy. On the contrary, considerable efforts have to be put in to truly do just that.

It’s often said that we should let go of toxicity of any form from our life. But what we’ve been doing is emphasising more on external toxicity while forgetting to look within. Quite (un)surprisingly, it is a lot of our own shortcomings and toxic traits which determine how we feel about ourselves as well as the people around us. Self-care is about understanding where you can improve and taking the efforts to do that.

Money is important for living a comfortable life. Knowing how to manage your finances and investments is a skill everybody needs to know. There’s a very interesting idea regarding this which could be a potential blog post. So keep a watch out for it!

The most obvious yet the most ignored form of self-care is taking good care of your body AND mind. Working out (and I mean, getting really sweaty whilst enjoying your workout), meditating and nourishing your body with food that’s good for your system are all wonderful ways to take care of yourself.

However, my personal favourite form of self-care is something that I have realised quite recently. It is to face your failures head-on. There are times when you’re going to let yourself down. And instead of going over it in your mind, the best thing you could do is to FORGIVE yourself. Realising your goof-ups and owning them take courage. You are very much a living, breathing human being. Let yourself breathe. ♡

One of my absolute favourite people on the internet, Pranita Kocharekar, launched a lovely desk calendar for 2021 titled ‘Simple Pleasures.’ While being a treat for the eyes, the way she has designed each and every page of it with a lot of thought makes me feel like it was one of my best gifts to myself.

She has listed simple activities you could do for yourself each month ranging from something as easy as taking an afternoon nap (we all deserve it) to doing something a bit more adventurous like chopping off your hair and sporting a new hairstyle.

All of the activities she has mentioned take little to no money to do them. And that’s what self-care is. Of course, splurging on luxurious products for ourselves every once in a while is great. But self-care isn’t materialistic alone. A major portion of it is working on yourself, improving your life, giving attention to wellness and just well.. living a life you are proud of.

Signing off for today with one question for you:
What can you do to care for yourself today?

Until next time, stay blessed.
@thesoulfulnib