7 Types of Self-Care Moms Need
They’re far more powerful than pedicures and comfort food
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The last thing you need is another to-do list. You probably already have a bunch of those, and each one seems to be never-ending.
What I’m about to share is not a to-do list.
Instead, it’s a list of things I’d like you to permit yourself to do, and not to feel guilty about taking the time to do any of them.
I’m sharing these because many are things I’ve resisted doing myself. I put them off. I tried to tell myself they weren’t “important.” I didn’t “need” them.
I was so very wrong.
Because these types of self-care make me happier than a bowl of mac n’ cheese or a monthly pedicure ever could.
In a roundabout way, they make me a better mom, wife, friend, and human being. But none of these are why I do them.
I take the time, when I want to, to do these things because I’ve come to realize that they’re the things that help me feel like not just a mom, or a wife, a client, a customer, a user, a follower, a number…
They help me feel like me.
These actions also help me feel more like I am living and not just surviving, not just getting by, going through the motions, working for the weekend, trying to keep up… They help me reconnect with myself and offer a way to take a break from my many roles and responsibilities for long enough that I can take them up again with energy, purpose, and passion.
When I’ve read about self-care, and often even when I talk about it myself, I notice that the majority of the time, it’s about physical pampering. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an occasional pedicure. Sometimes I do a face mask before bed. These kinds of things are enjoyable.
But as I get older, I worry about attaching the idea of self-care too tightly just to the maintenance of my face and body. Sometimes I think these things aren’t always about self-care but can also feel like the result of societal pressures to look a certain way. To “maintain” our looks. To not “let ourselves go.”
And that’s not very caring.
