This contrast is helpful — self-care vs. self-indulgence. Another contrast comes up regularly in sessions with my clients: nurture vs. escape. It doesn’t have the catchy “self” on each side, but it does contrast the behaviors that will leave us with satisfaction later vs. the behaviors that will leave us with regret in the future — those things that build us up from within vs. the things that drain us from without.

Because few people know HOW to practice effective self-care, I took six months to compile a specific, organized program of self-care that is customized for each individual reader in the book, The Bergen Protocol.

Like Amy Kaskie says, the difference between self-care and something else is the emotion we have when we do it. In other words, are we engaging in this behavior to nurture ourselves or to escape from something? The intent and our awareness make the difference.