3 Pitfalls Women Need to Avoid When Creating a Self-Care Routine
Even when you know how important self-care is to your wellbeing, it isn’t always easy to incorporate it into your daily routine. This is one reason why women, especially, don’t do a great job when it comes to taking care of themselves.
Let’s look at some of the pitfalls women have with self-care.
1) It is often perceived as selfish
One of the main reasons women fail to take care of themselves is because they feel it is selfish. It could be that you feel guilty when you take time to focus on you. Or, you may worry what other people think, or that you are a terrible person for putting your needs first.
It is a total myth that self-care is selfish. In fact, it can help you to be a better parent, friend, partner and relative. The more you take care of yourself, the easier you’ll find it to take care of others. You’ll also show your loved ones the importance of self-care – especially if you have children. Being a great example and teaching others to take care of their own needs is a crucial life skill that if one hasn’t learned, they need to and for children, it will help them to grow up to be happier, healthier adults.
2) Deciding You’re Too Busy
There is no getting away from the fact that self-care does take some level of effort in the beginning. When you aren’t used to making self-care a priority, you’re going to need to make some changes to your routine.
Coming up with a self-care plan can feel like a chore, making it easy to put it off. However, this is really just an excuse you are telling yourself. Decide you DESERVE to put your needs first. Your mental, emotional and physical health depend on it.
To start out, there are ways to reduce the effort. For example, focus on one thing you want to improve at a time can really help. What would you like to incorporate into your life that can help bring balance? Perhaps you’d like to start meditating. Getting up a few minutes earlier or scheduling time to meditate as soon as you wake up, can be a great start. Or, if you would like to move your body more, schedule time in your day for it. The most important thing is to get started and focus on your first goal.
If you break down your self-care tasks, it makes them much easier, reducing a lot of the effort involved.
3) Not sure where to turn
Every one of us is different, which means we enjoy and dislike different things. When you initially look at examples of self-care, you’ll find a lot of them relate to things like meditation, reading a book or taking a hot bubble bath, exercise, etc. If you find examples that don’t feel right, you might feel self-care really isn’t for you.
Self-care is anything that helps to relax you, to help you feel better and to help you feel supported and energized. Don’t let your brain talk you out of trying different forms of self-care until you find some that work for you.
If you aren’t developing a routine for yourself, ask yourself what is really going on. Self-care is essential to every living being. It is as important as food and water. So if you aren’t willing to make it a priority in your life, take a look at your beliefs around it. Work on developing new beliefs and thoughts around self-care. Decide you truly need and deserve nurturing and balance in your life.
These are some of the most common reasons women fail to take good care of themselves. It can be difficult overcoming the initial barriers to self-care. However, once you fully understand what and how important it is, and find some forms that make you feel better, you won’t want to stop and will wonder why this wasn’t always a part of your life.
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