So many women feel guilty prioritising themselves.
If we unpack this, first, I think there’s a problem with the word ‘prioritising’. Straight up, it brings to mind to do lists, competing stuff that needs to get done, stuff like washing, remembering to pick up the birthday cake, booking appointments, that email to your kids’ teacher and the list goes on.
Self – care doesn’t belong in a list like this.
Sure, it can be helpful when we’re first getting the hang of it to schedule it into our day but that doesn’t mean it belongs on a to do list.
Self-care isn’t something else ‘to do’.
It’s a pause between the doing,
like meditation is about finding the space between the thoughts.
Self-care is the space between.
And the space in between is the space that makes the rest of life doable in a more sustainable way. It’s the way we put ourselves into our own life.
Self care is at minimum basic personal maintenance.
At the fullest potential self care is living life in absolute integrity with all the fullness of you.
It’s not selfish.
It’s not a to do list item.
And there’s nothing to feel guilty about (which I appreciate is easier said than done) because we ALL need it.
We simply need a dialogue about it, so that it’s talked about differently. Especially in the world of capitalism where productivity is prized.
But we are not machines.
We can’t just keep going.
We need to have the down time, the spaces in between.
The slowness.
The breathing out.
THAT is self care.
I’d love to hear from you. What do you do for self care? Do you have feelings of guilt when you’re doing self care?
