What is self-care?
From self-belief to inner improvement to treating yourself, self-care means different things to different people.
We all already do it daily: we eat, drink, sleep, wash, take necessary medications, clothe ourselves. They are all fine examples of self-care.
But none of those actions is ever going to make us feel fulfilled. They’re necessities for survival, not for flourishing. To flourish and feel truly fulfilled we need to go further.
Sometimes that means looking deeper into some of those things and thinking a little more about them. For example, eating nourishing food, getting enough quality sleep.
But mostly, fulfilment is going to be achieved through other forms of self-care. And they are going to be different for everyone.
Self-care, schmelf-care!
Self-care is everywhere. When I did a recent Google search on those two words together it returned ‘about 3,250,000,000 results’. I think that’s 3 billion 250 million – or half the number of people in the whole wide world (that’s a pretty impressive, eyes-on-stalks number for a search result and I’m very happy I’m not tasked with researching every one).
Self-care has become a buzz phrase, trendy. It’s great that it’s out there and being talked about. Not so great how it’s being talked about willy nilly.
Buzz words and clichés get really tired and worn out through over-use. The word soon blends in to the millions of others being spouted daily and it largely goes unheard, or at least un-considered. It loses its meaning and its power.
So aware of this was I that I nearly didn’t use Self Care in the name of my business. But as that is the core and crux of what we do, it made no sense to avoid it. And anyway, its true meaning will be re-discovered and focused on by Self Care Gold followers – in a non-willy nilly fashion.
So right now let’s pare it right back to the dictionary definitions of both those small but vital words.
SELF: noun
A person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action.
CARE: noun
- The provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something.
- Serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk.
CARE: Verb:
- feel concern or interest; attach importance to something.
- feel affection or liking
- look after and provide for the needs of.
So let’s dig into those meanings and see how they apply to us.
SELF: A person’s essential being… you can’t get more core than that. It’s our life force, it’s our very existence.
CARE (as a noun):
- The provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare… I’ve highlighted the key word here – necessary. Care isn’t optional or the wheels will come off.
- Serious attention or consideration applied to doing something correctly or to avoid damage or risk (in this case to ourselves).
But in the phrase ‘self-care’, the care is actually being used as a verb so:
CARE (as a verb):
- feel concern or interest; attach importance to something
Well, if you’re struggling to see yourself as important, that’s likely why the wheels sometimes do come off. No-one knows more about the subject of you than you do. You’re the number one expert on you. The leading authority. You have to be important to yourself.
- feel affection or liking
We are the best friend we will ever have! We should love ourselves more than anyone else ever could or why should we ever expect that anyone else could even like us?
- look after and provide for the needs of
Quite simply this is what we should be aiming to do and keep doing. Life sometimes/often/always (circle as appropriate) seems to stop us doing that. That’s why Self Care Gold was born – to help you to stop things getting in the way and enabling you to ‘look after and provide for the needs of’ YOU.
If this sounds like something you need help with, I’d love to be the one to do that for you. Sign up for the weekly emails of practical inspiration and join the facebook Hangout.