The Lie We Tell Ourselves About Self-Care

For the first time in a long time, I've had a week of holiday.

While it was a good bit of respite, it got me thinking about self-care.

In my mind, not all self-care is created equal. They can be roughly split into 2 categories:

1. Positive Self-Care (anything which contributes to your long-term life goals or to your physical or mental wellbeing)
2. Negative Self-Care (anything which, at best, neglects your progress, or, at worse, sets you back with regards to your goals or your wellbeing)

Examples of Positive Self-Care

• Practicing good hygenie
• Eating nutritious meals that fit my required macronutrients
• Learning a new skill
• Improving a pre-existing skill
• Socialising with others who you like and who like you
  
• Improving my fashion sense
• Reading a book
• Engaging with a piece of media that I haven't seen before, or haven't seen in a long time
  
• Exercsing
• Stretching
• Engaging with your faith
• Getting a good amount of sleep

Examples of Negative Self-Care

• Watching porn
• Eating takeout
• Drinking alcohol
• Getting high
• Going to bed late, and sleeping in
• Dressing slobbishly
• Watching "nothingy" content (memes)
• Rewatching the same media for the billionth time in a row

I often find that I lie to myself that lying in bed all day, watching the same sitcom for the billionth time in a row, watching memes on YT, and looking like crap is somehow self-care.

Self-care isn't that.

It also isn't that 24/7 grind rubbish. That will burn you out and stress you out.

One of my goals for the future is to try to phase out my negative self-care patterns with more positive ones.

I am convinced that relaxation and progress are not mutually exclusive concepts!

Interested to hear your thoughts on this...