What is self-care any way?

The 24th of July is the international self-care day (ISD). The practice was initiated in UK in 2011 to raise awareness of the importance of taking time to take care of your physical and motional needs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Self-Care is what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health, and to prevent and deal with illness. It is a broad concept encompassing hygiene, nutrition, lifestyle, environmental factors, socio-economic factors, and self-medication.”

In my years of practice I saw that when scientists talk about self-care, the recommendations are so dry and crude: eat healthy (whatever this means), exercise, connect with family and friends, manage your stresses… and the list goes on and on…
We all know that, but how the heck can we do it?

• We know that we have to eat healthy, but this peace of cake is the only ‘sweetness’ that we have in life
• We know that we need to exercise but we lack the energy to even get out of bed in the morning
• We know that we need to connect with family and friends but everyone in busy in their own little bubble and Facebook gave us the illusion that we are connected but are we, really?
• We know that we need to manage our stresses but we keep running and running like a headless chicken we don’t even know what we are running for (or from)…

 
How can we take care of ourselves if, deep inside, we believe that we are not really worth it?
How can we take care of ourselves if, deep inside, we are filled with shame and blame and ruthless comparison with those photoshopped images and beauty products ads?
 
I believe that self-care stems from self-love. It all starts with self-love, self-acknowledgement and self-appreciation.

I had a question from a reader lately asking me to elaborate on the why? Why should we care about our physical, mental and spiritual health?

• You basically cannot eat healthy if you do not believe that your body is precious enough and deserve to be taken care of.
• You won’t find the stamina to be physically active if you do not start from a place of passion about life and your role in it.
• Your family and friends will appreciate you, believe in you and support you as much as you are willing to appreciate, believe in and support yourself first.
• And you will keep running and running like a headless chicken until you give yourself permission to pause, breathe and choose…

 
The why starts by feeling how precious you are. You are the creation of God, you are beautiful, you are loved, you are acknowledged by your Creator and you should start by taking care of those 2 precious gifts He gave you: You Body & your Soul.
 
So, here my friends are my 3 essential steps to start with:

1. List all the things you love about yourself (even if your high school teacher disagrees), all your achievements (small, big or tiny), all your talents, powers, potentials (physical ,mental or emotional)…. You have my permission to toot your own horn here!
2. Now, embody those traits and characters. Feel them, acknowledge them and live them… Remember, you have to believe in yourself first for people to believe in you.
3. Make a list of your ‘apples’ and have one every day for the next 7 days. Apples are things that make you genuinely happy, fulfilled, thrilled, and/or replenished. If you did not read my ‘apples’ story, you can find it Here.