5 Myths around Selfcare Alka Chopra, Registered Dietitian, Certified Diabetes Educator & Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor
“Self-care means giving yourself permission to pause.”— Cecilia Tran These days self-care has become a very trendy term and is thrown around a lot! It is something very fashionable and indulgent. With trendy perspectives, media influences, social media influencer messages, and advertising there are a lot of myths that have circled around self-care. Let’s break these myths so we get clear on true facts about self-care. 1. Self-improvement & Selfcare are the same: some people confuse between these two terms. So, let's clear this up! Self-improvement centers around being a perfectionist. It centers around the thought that there is something wrong with us or there is something we do not like about ourselves that needs to be fixed. E.g. I am lazy to go to the gym or I am not a good cook and so on. If you think about perfectionism from a realistic point of view it is very subjective. Perfect for you maybe imperfect for someone else and vice versa. Perfectionism is highly influenced by our lifetime experiences and our upbringing.
On the other hand, self-care comes from a pure self-nurturance perspective i.e., you identify areas that you wish to do better and take small steps that could be on a daily basis or a weekly basis to get to a level where you want to be. In the real sense, self-care is all about what you want to do and what you want to be rather than what others want you to be. 2. Selfcare is just for women: Typically, women talk about self-care routines, have to get-togethers, might do some self-care activities as a group, or even take time off from work to do something they love and enjoy (I do that on a regular basis). Does this mean self-care is just for women? Absolutely not! Every human being regardless of gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or socioeconomic status needs a self-care system in place. The basic needs of every human being are the same. Everyone needs to and must spend some time with themselves doing activities they love and enjoy on a regular basis. 3. Selfcare is something you do when you are undergoing a stressful situation: What do you think is better? Getting your car serviced on a timely basis or waiting for it to break down on the road and then you call the tow truck! I guess you get the point! Prevention is better than cure. Designing a self-care type of lifestyle is the route to take. Self-care is vital for building resilience toward any stressful situations that may come up in your life so you can handle the situation well. Living a selfcare type of life and creating a culture of self-care prepares you to handle the worst situations effectively and live your best life.
