What are your favorite self care practices? In this live, I explain the need to distinguish between self care vs. escapism. You can watch or listen to the entire recording at the end of this post. I’ve included my overall outline below as well.
I began the live by featuring some audience responses to my story poll on Instagram about favorite self-care practices. These included beauty routines, getting extra sleep, dancing, music, exercise, journaling, social breaks, and family checkins.
These are all examples of our favorite self-care practices because they’re fun, cute, comfy, cozy, and pleasant. And there are definitely excellent benefits to these forms of caring for the self.
Benefits of Fun Self Care.
- Rest and rejuvenation
- Mood boosters
- Confidence boosters
We regularly and willingly talk about the fun forms of self care, but some of the most important self care we can do is actually very difficult and can make us feel extremely uncomfortable.
Self-Care for growth and healing does not focus only on fun, cute, comfy, cozy, feel good in the moment activities.
And it’s important to know when the fun sensation of a habit crosses into the territory of escapism.
Self-Care vs. Escapism, Numbing, Avoiding
Escapism can be identified when the goal is actually to avoid addressing our problems or to numb our feelings about issues.
It’s not all bad. We may choose to “escape” for a little bit in order to recharge before facing an issue head on.
But habitual or chronic escapism actually exacerbates our problems and can lead to things like addiction.
The primary difference between self care vs. escapism is whether the practice allows you to open up to your life and face each day more well, to thrive in all areas of your life, or whether the habit numbs you to your life and makes it more difficult to thrive.
Other important forms of Self-Care that aren’t so comfy cozy and cute:
- Nutrition and Physical Health
- Setting boundaries, communicating them, and maintaining them.
- Having honest conversations
- Introspection (journaling)
- Defining your “North Node”: Setting intentions and goals as well as tracking your growth.
Celebrating your growth falls into the FUN category!
HOMEWORK: Do self-care every day this week.
AFFIRMATION: My present choices are in authentic alignment with my future vision!
(I’m really excited about sharing this affirmation because it’s one I wrote for myself and that I’m currently using in my personal life.)
Watch & Listen:
Click here to listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.