Self-Care 101: ‘Write 1 thing you’re grateful for or like about yourself per day.’
This was my therapist’s response to the prolonged silence and shrug that followed her question about what I need right now. What would self-care look like for me today? A simple enough question, but I stared at her dumbfounded.
Because, today, I genuinely have no idea what I need or even where to begin when it comes to trying to figure it out. It made me panicky – I’m a thoughtful, resourceful person. How could I possibly have NO CLUE?
‘Write just one thing – one thing a day that you’re grateful for or that you appreciate about yourself.’ A realistic, approachable way to begin.
Here’s the thing about self-care, it needs to address a wound. As my therapist said, a plaster (bandaid) is of no use if you have a headache. Similarly, a bubble bath is a great form of self-care if your body is aching and you need to relax. But it’s not necessarily what you need if you’re hurting emotionally. Maybe time spent writing would serve you better in that case. Or maybe what you need is a walk to clear your head. My point is that if you don’t know where to start, start small and make sure that whatever you’re doing for your self-care is actually treating or addressing the hurt inside you.
So what am I grateful for / what do I appreciate about myself today? I appreciate my curiosity and my desire to better understand the things that matter to me. What’s yours?