Why self-care is vital for your overall wellbeing
Tara Moss' thoughts on self-care
We take a look at cover star Tara Moss' thoughts on acknowledging your own needs and its importance.
If you can’t breathe, you can’t help anyone else. Just as you know you must eat to survive, and sleep to survive, it is important to realise that you must also look after yourself in other ways to survive, and this mental maintenance must be part of your regular routine. The activities involved in self-care will vary from person to person. The only key factor is the concept of ‘looking after myself, for myself’. This is very different from the version of ‘caring for yourself’ that is widely encouraged among women in mainstream Western culture. This other version focuses on watching your weight and looking after your appearance …
This may intersect with health benefits, or even improvements in other areas like self-esteem, but the focus is different, and for this reason we need to separate beauty maintenance and the like from self-care, even where there is a cross-over.
Self-care is consciously selfinitiated and maintained. It involves acknowledging your own physical, emotional and mental needs and taking action to maintain those vital areas of your health…
Self-care is not an emergency response to unexpected trauma. While it involves things like eating well and getting enough exercise and rest, it also involves a great deal more …
Consciously work on creating networks of friends and people who will challenge and support you. Make sure you don’t cut out that part of your life when you get busy.
Think about what gives you energy and makes you feel happy. These are the things that will help you to cope with the rest of life’s challenges. Don’t over-think it. If it works for you, gives you energy and isn’t hurting anyone, just do it.
This is an edited extract from Speaking Out: A 21st-Century Handbook for Women.
Read the full cover story in the October - November 2016 edition.
