Yes, I Used the S-Word. And Then Some.

Self-Care: Love It, Hate It, You Know You Need It

Tagged by Yana Bostongirl on the prompt “How do I Self-Care?”

Preeti
6 min readFeb 8, 2022

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Photo by Jean-Karim Dangou on Unsplash

If you threw up a little at the mention ofself-care — please — just wait, and give me one of your last chances to explain my take on it. Not that I’m an #influencer of any sort, but because I’ve experienced the trifecta of extreme burnout, anxiety, and depression, and may know a thing or two about why the self-c’s are important.

And trust me, I get it: We live in times where the self is exalted (as it rightly should be) and self-prefixed words are in vogue. It can get tiring listening to everyone go on about how they take deep breaths and have weekly Spa Sundays! If it seems like much, it’s because it is.

But beyond the fluff, there’s some real hype there. And I want people to understand that.

Self-care shouldn’t have been “a thing” in the first place

You may not know this or have stopped to think about it, but the expansion of self-care is caring for yourself.

Surprised? I don’t blame you — we’re repeatedly told we have to care for others — their opinions, their needs, their comforts, their ambitions…

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Preeti

Writer of Personal Stories, Humor, Fiction & Mental Health