How Can We Practice Self-Care When We Don’t Like Ourselves?
I spent far too many years doing self-destructive things that sabotaged my life rather than made it better.
Everyone knows how vital self-care is. We know we need to look after our basic needs, but sometimes we often don’t know how to set boundaries, practice discipline, or stop doing something that isn’t good for us.
For me, I spent far too many years doing self-destructive things that sabotaged my life rather than made it better. Sometimes I labeled these things as self-care. Too much eating, drinking, and procrastination were quickly reframed as self-care with the intention to continue unhealthy behaviors that gave me immediate pleasure. Much of this sabotage hurt my body, soul, and emotional life.
For years, I kept wondering why I’d choose sabotage over true self-care? The answer pointed to one thing — I didn’t like myself much.
Of course, self-care can take the form of pleasurable things like bubble baths, time out, reading a book, or other relaxing activities. But self-care is also about refraining from decisions that hurt us. And it’s also about having the discipline to do things we don’t like in service of our wellbeing.
