Fifteen years ago I learned the value of self-care on a level I hadn’t known prior.  My father had just died and I was in a season of grief, compounded quickly with my mother’s shocking terminal diagnosis.  I attended a grief group wherein the facilitator stressed the necessity for self-care.  This, she said, was essential to journeying through grief.  Notice the word “through” — the goal is to gently and eventually move through the acute pain.  To do so, one must advocate for their own health, balance, and well-being. 

While self-care is extra important in seasons of increased stress or hardship, it’s a wise practice to maintain across the board.  And it is a practice to be sure.  It requires an honest assessment of needs, a commitment to improve one’s quality of life, and a discipline to set and hold boundaries, even though that means disappointing others from time to time. 

There will always be bids for your attention and energy, and you will always have the same 24 hours in a day as everyone else.  So it becomes essential to protect and promote one’s own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness.  No one else will do this for you.  The gift of your life has been entrusted to you alone.  When you practice self-care you honor the privilege of being alive.  Not to mention, by doing so you actually end up depositing more light, peace, and goodness into the world. 

May you be inspired!