I’m sometimes not comfortable with using the term “self-care”; it’s so easy to say and advise on but equally can be so hard to put into practice. Life can feel tough enough to manage sometimes without someone telling you that you need to manage your self-care! What does it mean anyway and how do you reconcile this with perhaps learning somewhere along the way that caring and focusing on yourself is an act of selfishness.
Perhaps we need to start thinking about whether looking after ourselves is an important value of ours and if not why not? What’s in it for us to look after ourselves, what does it mean to us and how does it translate into action? To say that it can mean different things to different people is an understatement. Is it about developing friendships, connecting with others, going out for a walk, having fun, being active, being inactive, sleeping earlier, getting up later, knowing when to stop and have a cup of tea, cooking for ourselves, being more confident in saying that we don’t want to do certain things, being more creative? And the list goes it………
There’s no magic formula, as each one of us lives in differing circumstances. If you notice that you don’t know how to be caring towards yourself or are reluctant to start caring for yourself then perhaps therapy can support you to develop a curiosity about the meaning behind this. You might find that prescribing yourself with a dose of care and attention, designed by you and for you, may support you in dealing with your experiences of low mood, anxiety, shame or any other feelings that are causing you distress.