Self-Care- What is it and how can I get some?

"Self-Care", that sometimes elusive promise of wellness and equilibrium that can be hard to come by, and harder to schedule. Furthermore, when the mainstreaming of the concept became tied to buying, friends and community members posited "community care" as a more inclusive alternative.

While I firmly believe in care of the larger community, I would like to talk about why care of the individual self, when well understood, is not only not in competition with community wellness, but can be a crucial part of its maintenance. To begin with, we have to reconstruct the care of ourselves as being more than tranquility alone, though experiences of pleasure and relaxation are a part of wellness. When "self-care" confines a client to the lilac beach or bust, I like to open the conversation up with compatriot concepts: regulation, boundaries, and grounding. 

Simply put, care of the self, rather than one or two experiences, is a process of re-learning skills that lend to a re-structuring of our day to day existence to include everything from stability to joy. Quitting smoking? That is self-care. Learning to say no to a social outing when you are feeling overwhelmed? That is self-care too. Learning to say "yes" to a social outing even if you are nervous because you are feeling a need to be more connected? That is also self-care. Learning to bring a snack to your job to avoid "hangry?" You guessed it, also self-care.