The Truth About Self Care

If you ever walk into the self-help sec­tion at your local book store (yes, they still exist!), you’ll find aisle after aisle of books promis­ing some sort of improve­ment in your life. From diet and exer­cise to men­tal for­ti­tude and finan­cial inde­pen­dence, the books promise a sure-fire way to final­ly have what you feel you’ve been lack­ing. Have you ever paused to think about what all of these books have in common?

What does it mean to take care of your body and mind? What does it look like to take con­trol of your finances? How do you com­mu­ni­cate with those around you?

When you real­ly pause to think about your own per­son­al answers to these ques­tions, you may real­ize that most come down to one word: respect. At the end of the day, there is tru­ly no sub­sti­tu­tion for self-respect. When you clear­ly state your bound­aries with a part­ner or com­mu­ni­cate your needs to a friend, you aren’t being needy – you are valu­ing your body and your mind, and that action alone com­mu­ni­cates your expec­ta­tions to others.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we do not walk around with signs stat­ing our clear bound­aries and rules, so you need to be your own advo­cate. If you imag­ined writ­ing a sign that you could car­ry around stat­ing your own very sim­ple and clear rules for oth­ers to fol­low in order to show you the respect you deserve, what would be on your sign? What lan­guage would you use to com­mu­ni­cate? Leave a com­ment here or come on over to our Face­book page to share your own sign or find some inspiration.