I Chose The Magic Therapy Of Self-Care And Self-Love For Joy
In response to Dancing Elephants prompt 17 of 52
My journey of self-care and self-help
Self-care and self-love are a journey by themselves. It has to be learned if you want to live a life of happiness.
I feel unless you start yourself you will not be able to love others.
When I started my Ph.D. I was married and had a little kid but when I ended I had three.
I rubbed some magic to remain sane.
What is this magic?
Self-care and self-love.
Self-care is not the same as self-love of course. Self-care is important if you want to love yourself and love others.
A lot of my energy was wasted trying to bring up three kids. The elder two were 2 years and 6 months apart. and the difference between the second and third was only one year and eight months.
You can imagine how much work there was in bringing up children. They were all boys.
At that age, they have colic, mumps, measles, chicken pox, and all. By the age of 12, they become little settled.
Imagine I was a mother and I was doing my Ph.D. which had a lot of stress as assignments had to be regularly done.
This is the time I decided that it was no good to be stressed. I had to be comfortable in my own skin.
I began experimenting with myself. I met a friend who took me for meditation. She said that I needed to calm my mind from tiredness, stress, and lack of sleep.
It made sense to take care of my mental, emotional and physical well-being.
I went along with my friend where she went for meditation. This was the first step. I really enjoyed it a lot and felt good and relaxed.
I was very fond of an American exercise plan in which you exercised for 10 minutes only but kept increasing each exercise every day.
I looked very fit by doing just this exercise. I recommended this to many friends.
Then I moved on to yoga and it became a favorite and fun time for me.
It helped me to be positive and stay away from negativity. Caring for myself helped me to be more confident of myself. Certainly, my self-esteem improved.
I started sleeping scant because the boys kept me up but I certainly slept better and was more relaxed.
I was healthy and happy. It motivated me to complete my Ph.D. in finance.
The youngest baby would often sleep in my lap and the middle one would snuggle also and the eldest would hang around while I was typing on my electric typewriter as there were no computers then.
They say there should be something to inspire you.
I chose self-care and self-love as my inspiration to feel good and be positive and motivated to continue the hard work and I did manage.
Self-care and self-love are potent. They are like magical drugs. They were an elixir of life for me. I was confident at home and at work.
Something I still lacked. What was it? SELF LOVE.
I just kept on caring for others.
A friend invited me to a party. I felt very guilty that I left the kids and went out. I dressed well, wore my heels, and went with a not-very-sure feeling that it was right to enjoy myself leaving the kids at home. Many of my relatives even felt that it was not right to do so.
There was music and dance. I was young. I enjoyed dancing and singing merrily with everyone. This was fun. It brought me a lot of joy.
When I went home, the boys had missed me but no one complained. This was the beginning of self-love.
Self-love does not mean attending parties always but doing activities that make you feel good. Being kind to yourself and not making yourself extra tired doing mundane jobs. It is certainly finding some time for yourself.
It is your decision whether you want to care for your health and go for a walk or love yourself and go and spend time for yourself the way you want to do so, away from your daily chores.
To love others, you must start with yourself. Self-care and self-love are essentials in our lives. I chose to care and love for myself every day to live a good and healthy life.
It is like taking charge and responsibility for your life and giving a self-reminder that you are being taken care of by yourself instead of whining away and expecting others to look after you.
The takeaways
1️⃣Your mental and physical health is in your own hands. Take responsibility for yourself.
2️⃣Some people think that self-love makes selfishness and self-serving. It is all just about your own self while not neglecting others. Do not get into this trap of neglecting people for your own joy.
3️⃣ Value yourself and recognize your self-worth. Remember to keep on doing justice to yourself and your loved ones.
4️⃣Do something that makes you feel good.
5️⃣Do not feel like a victim by neglecting yourself. It is important to take out time for yourself and do what you feel is good for you.
To wrap up
I still indulge in self-care and self-love. For a birthday celebration, I went to a restaurant and from the rooftop, I could see the Qutub Minar.
I sat in the open air though it was cold in winter. I enjoyed the cool fresh air. I
kept thinking of the history of the place and felt like a royal queen. This was real self-love. It makes my life beautiful.
These moments of joy are my points of inspiration and float many creative thoughts in my mind.
If you are able to take care of yourself and love yourself, you will be able to be more present and loving toward your friends and family which help strengthens our bonds and makes us happy.
Self-care is an important tool to help us to live a positive lifestyle.
I would like to end with a quote.
Self-care is one of the active ways that I love myself. When you can and as you can, in ways that feel loving, make time and space for yourself.” — Tracee Ellis Ross
Thanking Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles for her thoughtful prompt on self-care and self-love
Some interesting posts.
Some people cry easily but Pam does not get those tears. How do you feel about it?
Sahil cites love at first sight to be a magical experience.
©Dr. Preeti Singh, 2023.
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