Summary

The author of the article has recently discovered the importance of physical self-care for overall well-being and success, and is seeking advice from readers on how to maintain it.

Abstract

In a personal revelation, the author shares their late realization at the age of 33 that consistent physical care is crucial for maintaining a good quality of life and achieving success. This epiphany, which occurred on February 22, 2022, challenges their long-held belief that pushing oneself to the point of collapse is the correct approach to life. Reflecting on past experiences, the author acknowledges the pattern of stress and bodily breakdown as a flawed lifestyle choice. Now, with a newfound understanding of self-care, they are reaching out to the Medium community for practical advice on maintaining health and well-being, including proper hydration, sleep, exercise, and meditation to manage the "Achievement Scream." The author also recommends an article on intuition by Vidya Sury for further insights into self-care.

Opinions

The author believes that the traditional approach to success, involving constant stress and physical exhaustion, is incorrect and unsustainable.
They express genuine surprise and fascination with the concept of not being in a state of physical misery, suggesting a previous lack of awareness regarding self-care.
The author values the collective wisdom of the Medium audience and trusts in crowdsourced advice for self-improvement.
There is an acknowledgment that intuition plays a significant role in understanding personal needs for self-care, and the author intends to pay more attention to their own intuition moving forward.
The article conveys a sense of humor and self-deprecation, particularly when the author reflects on their past lifestyle choices and the enjoyment of enforced breaks due to illness or surgery.

How The Eff Do You Take Care of Yourself?

No, seriously, genuine question

Image by onlyshaynestockphoto from Shutterstock

My loves!

I have learned a mind-bending little life factoid this week. It is:

Apparently, for any kind of success and/or quality of life, you’re supposed to take physical care of yourself.

Apparently apparently, it’s super fucking hard to do jack shit if you’re physically at the point of collapse all the time. And I, at the ripe of old age of 33 and a half, learned this on Tuesday of this week. 2/22/22.

…oh dear.

*looks at ceiling and twiddles my thumbs* Fascinating weather we’re having right now, isn’t it?

Wait, We’re Not Supposed To Be Physically Miserable?!

My mind, she is blown. This concept is paradigm-exploding.

Not changing. Not shifting. Wile E. Coyote literally dropped a barrel of TNT on it and boom, the Roadrunner is now sprinting away, laughing hysterically.

Exploding.

Over the course of my life, I picked up the very strong idea that the correct way of going through life was to push yourself to the physical limit and just live there, stressing out and collapsing every so often when your body just broke down. It’s how I went through school. It’s how I live my life now.

In retrospect, that might be one of the reasons I adored getting sick in high school. It was the only time I got a physical break. Getting my wisdom teeth out was hands-down the best three days of my entire high school career.

How Do You Take Care Of Yourself?

Now that I have learned this super-obvious-to-everyone-but-me life hack, I have a question for the audience:

How the eff are you supposed to take care of yourself?

‘Cause, um…I genuinely don’t know.

Are you supposed to drink a lot of water? Get a lot of sleep? Exercise? Meditate a lot to silence the Achievement Scream?

I would like to crowdsource answers to this question, because I trust greatly in the collective wisdom of Medium as a whole and this publication in particular.

Tell me things! Give me ideas! And also read this awesome post on intuition by Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, because it was very excellent and actually started giving me some ideas on this whole care-of-self thing. Apparently, my intuition knows things. I should listen to it.

Intuition: *bangs pots and pans, walks around my head going “FUCKING FINALLY OMFG WE HAVE BEEN SMACKING YOU FOR YEARS GOOD LORD”*

Me: Ah. Well then. I guess I have some work to do.