Some people are under the impression that self care is just a way to pamper yourself. In fact, they may justify it as a reward for work well done or an accomplishment. As helpful as granting extra occasional love to yourself is, it also shouldn’t be reserved just for those special times. In order for self care to really change your life for the better, the best way to help yourself is learning how to incorporate it in your daily routine to really think of yourself in a higher regard.
As confusing as that may sound, it starts by recognizing that no one is perfect. Self care is showing more compassion for errors that you may have made that you thought were fine to say or do at the time. The moment that you accept that fact, then you gain control to begin changing the severity of how rough that you’ve been on yourself. Accepting your shortcomings returns hope and the opportunity to see past those mistakes with a clear head instead of one filled with exaggerated amounts of guilt and pain.
Learning to accept yourself is another daily habit in establishing a self care routine. You may argue that self acceptance is the worst thing that you could do since it keeps you stagnant from changing. However, it is a starting point because once you accept yourself as you are at that moment, then you have the power to also work on the aspects of your behavior that you want to modify. Self acceptance encompasses all parts of yourself to strive toward being the best that you can be with health, mind and body. After all, all of us are works in progress that by adopting self acceptance as a daily self care habit in your routine takes practice.
Everyone sets personal boundaries for themselves. One of yours may be falling victim to friends wanting to take advantage of a particular skill you have such as hemming a pair of pants. A friend may come visit and bring a pair for you to work on. You may not want to hurt their feelings and just hem the pants. Yet, this one example is not self care. Stick to those personal boundaries you set for yourself for your own sake is the healthier choice for daily self care. Instead, you have two choices from saying that you will do it when you have time or set a fee for what you would charge.
Being kinder to yourself is something that we all deserve, but we seem to be our own worst enemies. Needless to say, the only way around this is making it a practice to examine how we feel at the end of each day and what brought out those feelings. Whether you write them down in a diary that you can read back to yourself or discussing them with a close friend or family member, it gives you a chance to reflect and understand your motivations more than allowing negative emotions to fester over time.
