Neglecting Self-Care Is Bad for Your Health, Wellness, and Wellbeing
Everyone deserves a break from the grind.
Too many messages in the world today tell you to push. Keep going. Never stop. Do the thing, then do it again. Make it happen. Keep giving it your everything.
The problem is, we need to give ourselves a break from time to time. The trouble with this is that most people feel unworthy and/or undeserving of a break, a vacation, or the like.
I totally understand this. Recently, it has come to my attention that I hold my own beliefs in my lack of action. I think I don’t do enough, could give more, am not pushing or hustling enough, and so on. Until recently, I didn’t recognize this for what it is.
And what is it? Utter bullshit. Untrue. See, I DO give enough. Work happens by my hand constantly. I am not some lazy layabout avoiding the world or my life. I’m putting in the effort to do things and make my life how I desire for it to be.
Recognizing this took time, effort, and therapy. But now that I have, I also recognize that as part of my self-care and my overall wellbeing, I’m worthy and deserving of taking a break. Getting rest. Chilling out and just being.
That’s part of why, as you read these words, I’m on vacation this week.
A different world
Every year I go away for 10 days or so to a medieval reenactment event. While it’s a change of scenery and a step away from my normal day and the things I do, it’s still a degree of work.
Yet, this different world I take a trip to every year is my reset. During that time, I am rarely online, not writing, editing, or marketing my books, doing websites, cleaning the house, or the other things I do most days. I’m living in a camp with friends, spending time being an alternative version of myself, and ultimately practicing self-care.
The month before this event, I tend to get squirrelly. Impatient. Flustered. Why? Because I need to take a real, genuine break. Often, I look at this with a sense of incredulity. Do I do that much work? My job isn’t the standard 9-5, I’m not raising kids, or that sort of thing. Do I actually need to take this break?
Of course I do. I do my work, and like everyone else need to practice self-care. When I do this, I give myself time to reset, relax, and recoup my time and energy. And what constitutes this working vacation for me is still a break from the norm and great for my wellbeing overall.
When you neglect self-care, you are not giving yourself something you need. Because nobody, and I mean nobody, can be constantly on. Everyone needs to pause, to get away from the rote and routine, and take a break. And what this looks like for me need not be what it is for you. But everyone is worthy and deserving of it.
Self-care is part of everyone’s health, wellness, and wellbeing
The mind, body, and spirit are not all that you and I are made of. These basic notions are broken into 4 distinct, different elements that make up our overall health, wellness, and wellbeing.
These include:
Mental: All your thoughts, ideas, notions, concepts. This is all the thinking about things, tangible and intangible, that you do.
Emotional: All your feelings, emotions, senses, impressions. This is all the things you feel, tangible and intangible, that you experience as you do stuff.
Spiritual: This is your beliefs and values, and your sense of self and place in the universe. It’s not strictly ethereal, but it’s utterly intangible and impacts your overall isness.
Physical: This is your body, and all the good and bad of it. Stiff joints, input from sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell, as well as how you interact with the world around you.
If any one of these is imbalanced, your overall health, wellness, and wellbeing are impacted. Neglecting any one of these can make you unwell. How do you prevent that? Self-care.
This isn’t necessarily massages, mani-pedis, spa days, or the like. This is taking breaks, giving yourself grace, and allowing yourself to enjoy moments in time when you’re not hustling, on the go, and striving to meet or exceed expectations – those of yourself or others.
When all is said and done, self-care is simply caring for your self on every level.
Your health, on all levels, matters
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from. You matter. Your health, wellness, and wellbeing matter. No matter if it’s mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical. All of it is part of who, what, where, how, and why you are. Hence, all of it matters.
Why do you matter? Because you’re here. Why are you here? To experience life. To live. All of it matters because that’s what it’s all about.
Constantly being on the go and neglecting self-care, however, is unhealthy. That’s why I’m taking my annual break as you read this. I need the change of scenery, the vacation, the different experience. As part of my commitment to myself and practicing mindfulness, I recognize that self-care is a big deal.
You are worthy and deserving, so don’t neglect self-care. Enjoy this limited time you have here and now!
Practicing self-care for your health, wellness, and wellbeing isn’t hard
It’s all about practicing active conscious awareness (mindfulness) of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and the positivity or negativity of your approach to direct your actions.
Recognizing and acknowledging that your mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health, wellness, and wellbeing are all important, you can practice self-care to be at your best. Knowing you are worthy and deserving of having the best possible life experience, and that practicing self-care is part of that, you can do things to make the most of this and take better care of yourself via self-care.
This empowers you. When you’re empowered, that can, in turn, empower others around you. That’s why I share these weekly posts with you.
Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity — from the vast cylinder that exists between them — shifts life in ways that open you to more potential, possibility, and the like. From there, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you in the here and now.
The more aware you are of yourself in the present, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, it can spread to those around you and empower them, too. That is an amazing conduit to help reason overcome fear in the collective consciousness.
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the six-hundred-fifty-first (651) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energy for everyone. Feel free to share, reblog, and spread the positivity.
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