♡︎ 𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 ♡︎ 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 ♡︎

Self care has been something that I have struggled with for forever.

and this has increasingly become more and more problematic for me because as a social worker; practicing self-care is legitimately an ethical mandate..... MEANING that by neglecting to incorporate proper self-care practices into my daily routine, I not only cause myself to shut down and experience major burn out, fatigue, emotional overwhelm, etc.,but I legitimately violate the code of ethics that my very profession promotes and abides by.

Upon reflection, I’ve come to see that my problem has always been that I convince myself that I am practicing self care when in fact, I am not at all.

I tell myself that being productive and getting stuff done is practicing self-care beause being productive makes me happy (my mind see’s the happiness that fulfilling that task generated within me and thinks doing that made me happy aka by doing whatever task it was that I was doing, I was practicing self-care) but sometimes self care entails being unproductive and honoring that. Sometimes self-care entials listening to your body, relaxing, and not bullying yourself for doing so..... and yeah, I genuinely suck at that: ask me to do anything and I’m up for it... ask me to do nothing..... & nope. I simply can’t do it. The negative self-talk & self-bullying that transpires within minutes after doing nothing is often times too overbearing & sooner than later I’m out and about doing something, anything at all, just not nothing.

& I’m telling you all of this becauseeeeee last night I actually took a bath (my parents have a jacuzzi in their bathroom and I don’t take advantage of it at all) except, last night I did 🛁🧼😛

I was feeling a whole bunch of less than ideal emotions so instead of engaging in negative self talk and bullying myself for feeling that way I listened to my body and responded to those emotions with care.. aka I took a bath & journaled and read while in the 🛁 I also made a smoothie & ate my body weight in sour patch watermelons😛 &&& I felt much better, GO FIGURE :)💘

(Idk why this is a five paragraph essay, it wasn’t supposed to be but here we are.... this is an edit to say; I’ve finished writing it and it’s too long for an insta caption which is why if you’re reading this, you’re reading it from my blog😆)

ANYWAYS, my point is this:

self-care is not selfish.. rather, it is essential. We need to take care of our bodies and that entails listening to what they’re trying to tell us. When our bodies need rest, rather than engage in negative self-talk and belittle ourselves for needing more sleep or more down time than usual, we should honor those needs. Honoring what our bodies are trying to tell us via exhaustion, fatigue, angst, irritability, etc is ALWAYS the best and most productive thing to do, although it may not feel like it in the moment.

Think of it like this:

Feelings are visitors. They are not meant to stay. But they must be let in first in order to leave. And when we refuse to let those feelings in, they always come back, each time stronger and more intense than the prior time and they continue to ask to be let in. You see, they didn’t just show up for no reason, they are there because they have a message that your body needs to hear.... thus, if continuously denied entrance, they will eventually demand it. And what that means is really just that after being denied entrance for long, they will have become so fierce and strong and intense that they will knock your door down and come in whether you like it or not and then, you’ll be forced to face them.

That said; feel your feelings when they first make an appearance. And don’t just feel the good ones. Feel the bad ones too.

the feeling that you don’t want to feel,

feel it, by doing so you will feel the feeling without becoming the emotion.

All you have to do is open the door when that feeling knocks, let it in, listen to what it has to say, respond accordingly and just like that it’ll leave.

You see; when we choose to witness our feelings and sit with them and listen to what they’re trying to tell us, we allow ourselves to process them and once we process them we are then able to release them and return back to our normal happy go lucky selves 🕊🕊🕊

Plus; we all deserve the peace and freedom that follows releasing heavy emotions 🦋

I preach it all the time but I SO OFTEN FORGET so here’s a reminder in the form of a blog that was intended to be an insta caption which is really just another way for me to affirm all of this; feelings are called feelings for a reason. We must feel them &&&& practicing self care is not self-indulgence, it is self preservation!! ♡︎♡︎♡︎

- Erin <3