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SELF CARE & PERSONAL GROWTH

Welcome to my personal growth and self care blog! On this website you'll find: self care promotions, blog posts on weekly topics, and questions that you ask and I answer (See below). This is an educational page, and it is solely for the spreading of information on personal growth and self care! Please share with your friends!

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The Stigma of Self Care

Updated: Jan 14, 2019

Self care has been a sensitive topic recently, because it involves taking care of yourself, and sometimes people see this as a way to get out of taking care of other people. To understand that there is a line between taking care of others and yourself is to be aware of your time and emotions. If making other people happy makes you happy, but you sometimes find that you never get time to yourself, you need to slow down. Survey the situation for a second. Why do you need to help this person constantly? Is it your job? Obviously it is good to help people, and we can all agree on this, however, sometimes you need to say no to helping and take care of yourself instead, because you have needs just like other people. The fact that self care is seen as selfish and self-centered is not okay and we need to understand that it is normal to need to take a break and breathe for just a minute without worrying about someone or something else. Just as I said in my first post, self care is for everyone, and you need to learn to partake in the opportunity before it goes away with stressful times. Find the time to do something for yourself every day, even if it’s the smallest thing, and don’t feel guilty that you can make yourself happy. “Your mental well being is just as important as your overall well being, and you must take care of your brain like you take care of the rest of your body.”


Questions Forum:

How do I not feel selfish when I decide to take of myself before I think care of other people? This is tough, especially because as a friend, our job is to support our peers, but how can we know where this line is? When do we leave them on their own and take care of ourselves also? People need to understand that it is difficult for some people to multitask taking care of 2+ people at once. Especially for people who are happy helping others, they don’t have the time to help themselves too, because they are busy fixing other people. Your peers also need to understand that your job is not to fix them, and the only person that can make the ultimate change is that person is a struggle. You can support, listen to the ones needing help, but at the end of the day, do not feel selfish that you are taking care of yourself. You are a person who needs helping. If no one can listen and support you like you do for others, it is okay to do it yourself. Even if you do have a good peer to do these things, you still deserve to have a moment to love yourself. It is not selfish, and definitely not self-centered. It is as simple as this: it is self.

What are the benefits of taking mental health/personal days from school, despite the threat of unexcused absence? The environment of school is not necessarily for people who need the occasional mental health or personal day from their environment. It is considered weak, because you “can’t deal with your feelings like everyone else”. Everyone has their own way of coping, and some stick to staying a home for a day to themselves. The administrations of most schools are not respectful of people who choose this path of coping, because they are missing school or important events, however, in order to incorporate everyone, no matter what they’re dealing with, into the school system, staff need to be flexible and understanding of different students. Taking a mental health day can be a reset for some people. Environments like school can cause anxious feelings, especially with the pile up of work, feelings, grades, and on top of that, everything going on with their personal lives. Obviously, it is the student’s overall responsibility to catch up on their work as best they can, however, their coping mechanism needs to be respected by school staff.


How can we prevent the stigma of self care?

In our society, we are made to think that you put others before yourself, but things have changed, and you need to find a balance between you and the others. First, educate yourself. Try new self care techniques, and learn about ways of self care that are good for you and that put you first for once. However, we are taught that it is selfish. “So of course when we contemplate the idea of a mental health day, we beat ourselves up for it.” Mental health and your well being is just as important as your physical health, and spreading this new knowledge to our peers, and everyone we know, can help prevent the stigma.

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