I've been having a long old think recently. The kind that makes you reflect on your life, quit your job and travel the world - oh, wait.
Self care is one of those things which carries a bit of a taboo. Think self-care, and you might picture a Kayla Itsines workout, abs of steel and a green smoothie in a perfectly manicured hand. Self care might sound like the kind of thing you find at a yoga session or at a retreat in Bali.
Some people do have the luxury of living these lives, but for most of us, it's not realistic. Self-care is about not comparing yourself to other people and how they care for themselves, and figuring out how to do you. Finding your own comfort zone, discovering what you can do, what you can't do, and what you'd love to be able to do.
Eating healthily and exercising regularly is going to make you feel better, of course it is. But actually finding the mindset to go to the gym? That is part of your self-care regime. Figuring out celery and kale itself isn't going to make you feel like a 10/10, is also part of your self-care regime. Self-care might be found losing yourself in a paint brush and canvas, it might be found taking your dog for a walk, or it might be found in writing. It almost definitely won't be found in Instagram stalking your favourite influencers and comparing their lives to yours.
It's so easy to look at someone and think they're happy. It's even easier for people to create that persona online, and publishing a post of your green smoothie doesn't mean everything's going great in life, it doesn't mean that person isn't having a bad day.
The truth is, you might just need a break. You might just need to sit down in front of a film with a huge tub of Ben and Jerry's. You might even need to admit you have to give up and leave whatever you're doing for a little while, because it's for the greater good, and those are the real things which lead to self-care.
There's only so long you can persuade yourself materialistic things are making life okay, before you have to have some time to reflect on what's going on within. Social media has made false impressions 100x harder, and it's so easy to look at the life of everyone around you through a lens of Facebook and forget they, like you, only post the highlights of their days, weeks and months.
So put down your green smoothie, and get yourself a cup of tea. Think, write, draw, paint, do whatever you can to discover what you really need to do to care for yourself, it might take days, it might take months, but it'll be an even slower process if you think you can find it in kale.
Love, Alice x
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