Why Everyone Should Take Self-Care Seriously

In today’s world, there are a couple of really popular ideas that are often put at total odds with one another.

On the one hand, there’s the entrepreneur “hustle and grind” culture, that’s all about working extraordinarily long hours, having a single-minded focus on your goals, and not wasting time on things like watching movies, or having a lazy Saturday stroll.

On the other hand, there’s self-care. The idea that it’s actually important to pay attention to the small things like wearing comfortable shoes and using heel balm, relaxing after work, and taking time to savour your morning cup of coffee.

While it’s definitely important to have some goals and a sense of direction in life, it’s also really important to take self-care seriously.

Here’s why everyone should take self-care seriously.

Because both positive and negative spirals are very real, and you want to stay on the right side of the balance

In life, both positive and negative spirals are very real phenomena, and they can be difficult to break out of once you get started.

In a positive spiral, things go from good to better, and your positive habits, circumstances, and strokes of luck end up compounding on each other and serve to keep you moving in a good direction.

In a negative spiral, the exact opposite happens. Your fatigue, frustration, setbacks and hurdles all accumulate and add up, and everything starts falling apart.

Self-care is one way of safeguarding a bit of the baseline positivity in your life, to protect against the descent into a downward spiral, and to ideally help promote an upward spiral.

Things like getting enough sleep and maintaining a healthy diet and a sense of gratitude, can really go a long way in keeping things together.

Because self-care is very important for remaining in touch with your truest and deepest intuitions

We all have deep intuitions, dreams, and inner perspectives on things that can shape the direction of our lives, and give us a clear sense of what we should be doing, and where we should be heading, at any given moment.

If you are exhausted, stressed out, and overworked, however – and especially if you’re constantly relying on your ability to “grind through” with things that you hate – there is a real risk that you will end up drowning out and losing touch with the deep intuitions that can tell you how to find your ultimate meaning and direction in life.

Self-care can help you to remain in touch with your truest and deepest intuitions, and can therefore keep you true to yourself.

Because if you’re constantly busy and rushed off your feet, you can miss a lot of the beauty of everyday life

Everyday life is full of moments of beauty, and things to feel grateful for, but if you’re constantly busy and rushed off your feet, there’s a good chance that you won’t even notice a lot of the small everyday blessings.

Keep this up for long enough, and you may miss out on most of the beauty to be found in your life as a whole.

Self-care reminds us to and appreciate what’s right in front of us.