Walking into Florra, you will see shelves upon shelves of products that help you care for yourself. Self-care has become a term we hear more often these days. It has become a movement, born out of necessity due to the increasingly demanding work culture we live in. The general message is that we need to take care of ourselves, first and foremost, and before anyone or anything else to avoid burn out. Ideally, self-care is a holistic approach in which we care for the body, mind, and soul. We should aim to feel good from the inside out. We know we must carve time out for self-care to have any semblance of health and wellbeing in this fast-paced world. We also know that self-care has been proven to reduce stress levels and improve overall wellbeing. But I feel like the message of self-care could become just another social media fad if all we ever do is preach it without considering the deeper meaning behind it.
Self-care is an act of self-worth. Self-worth is defined as a sense of one's own value as a human being. It’s an intrinsic feeling of worth and value just for existing. Self-worth is not dependent on external factors like what we do, where we live, or who we know. Self-worth is feeling worthy just because we were born.
Small moments change everything
I wholeheartedly believe in the profound benefits of self-care, so much so that I opened an entire store dedicated to it. I know first-hand what it’s like to ignore my own needs to the point of mental and physical exhaustion. I know what it’s like to feel like I must fill up every inch of my day with tasks and chores just so I can feel productive. I stumbled into self-care on my own before the explosion of self-care memes, before hashtags like #SelfCareSundays were trending. In a desperate effort to feel better during a time when I was juggling a home business and small children and on the verge of burnout, I began adding small moments of care to my days. They ended up changing everything for me. They were small things such as waking up early to sit with a cup of tea and writing in my journal. Some of the things felt superfluous at the time like lighting a candle or bringing in fresh-cut flowers from the garden. But they were anything but superfluous. These small moments drastically improved my physical and emotional wellbeing. Self-care became a lifestyle for me. More importantly, I was finally showing up for myself in ways I had not done before.
I know why I wasn’t taking care of myself. It took me a long time to realize that I had intrinsic worth and deserved care and love just because I existed. I was looking outside of myself and measuring my worth based on my accomplishments. I poured all my energy into work and caring for my children, forgetting that I was a whole human being with needs, wants, and desires. It was all about what I was doing and not about how I was feeling.
I certainly care for my children unconditionally. They don’t need to do anything to deserve my care. Children just seem to know their intrinsic worth. They seek out pleasure and joy in everything they do. In no way do they feel like their joy must be deserved or earned. In fact, if it’s not a joyful experience, they don’t want any part of it.
Reviving our spark for life
As adults, we have lost the sense of self-worth that says, I deserve to feel good. After years of operating in this way, we lose our spark and live life on autopilot, running from one task to another. If we have more self-worth, we would feel worthy of the extra time to ourselves to care for our mental and physical wellbeing. Whether it’s just a cup of tea before sunrise, going for a run, buying flowers just because, or putting on a killer outfit—these moments show us that we are worthy of joy and pleasure. And when we incorporate more and more of these small moments into our lives, the spark returns.
The spark is what the French call joie de vivre: the exuberant enjoyment of life. The ironic fact is that when we have more of this spark, we have more energy to accomplish our goals and care for others. The spark is our life force. Call it life force, qi, or prana, this vital energy increases when we feed it by meeting our own needs, when we play and create, and when we feel joy and pleasure. Even if we can’t do what children do and go from one pleasure to the next, we can add small moments into our days. We can practice feeling worthy of these moments without guilt or shame. We can get used to caring for ourselves in the way we care for others. We can build upon these small moments until self-care becomes a lifestyle and our sense of self-worth is restored. Because at the end of the day, we are undoubtedly worth love and care—just because we are.
Self-Care is an Act of Self-Worth
Featured articles
I’ve always felt like a modern woman with an ancient soul. My life feels like a paradox. Busy days on...
Your perfume is more than a beautiful scent. It is an expression of who you are: your mood, personality, emotions,...
As a child, I used to pick rose petals from the garden with my sisters. We would gather them into...