Self-Care

Hello, lovely people!

 Today I'm going to talk a little bit about self-care, because I feel it's something important to talk about in this day & age. It's a topic that is talked about often, but no one can agree on anything about it.

• Self care isn't always pretty.

 Everyone seems to have this idea that self-care is all about coffee dates with friends, bath bombs, and getting haircuts. Things that are easily Instagram-able, fun, and "cutesy". And that's great! For some people, that is great!
 But for some people, self care is just being able to eat something other than microwave dinners or cold pizza. For some people, it's changing their bed sheets. Or even just brushing their hair. It's small steps, and not everyone can have "pretty" self-care. Which leads to my next point...

• Self care isn't the same for everyone.

 Some people may need less of one thing, more of another, and none of something different.  Each person is a unique mix of needs & wants, and it may even depend on the day!

• There's a difference between Needs and Wants.

 There is a surprisingly big divide between what a need and a want is in the form of self-care, and again, it's different for everybody.
 For me, personally, my *NEEDS* self-care is getting my to-do list done, my room cleaned, and then being able to just relax and write a blog post like this one. My *WANTS* self-care is being able to take a long bath, make some art, and then relax and watch some TV with my dog.

• Self care can kind of suck.

 Yep, I said it. It can really suck. Self-care isn't fun all the time. I don't enjoy cleaning my room- I actually find it extremely frustrating, but it needs to be done and afterwards I feel fantastic. Sometimes the road to your destination is boring, but it's always worth it in the end.

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 Now, here are some tips & tricks to help you with your self-care! :)

• If you find yourself struggling with doing the "un-fun" stuff, give yourself a reward after doing each thing. You'll be more apt to do it. For example; shower, brush your teeth, and get dressed, and you can take 15 minutes to read from your favorite book.
• Don't stress out if you can't do it all- it's okay, take your time.
• If there's something that stressing you out and you can take a break from it, do so! You'll come back to it with a clearer head.
• Keep your mental health in mind- if you deal with things like anxiety, depression, etc., your self-care is probably going to different than your friends who don't deal with those things, and it's okay.
• Take a break from social media- it can be very taxing on your well-being without even realizing it. I've learned that the hard way multiple times.

Just hang in there, dears. Love you all! Ciao!
Hannah