What is self-care to you? For me, it is self-improvement. It is taking care of my mental health, by freeing myself of relationships that aren't good for me, and by evolving as a human. It is also long bubble baths when I need them, and working out to relieve stress and to become stronger. It is also eating healthy though a plant-based diet so that my body can always be fighting cancer. My idea of self-care changed after my cancer diagnosis, as it has for others. I wrote about what self-care is for me for the latest issue of Wildfire magazine, which focuses on women who were diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 45.
While I was happy to have been selected as a contributor, what made me the most pleased was the ability to step back and think about what self-care is to me now. I am much more conscious of the need for good self-care than I was pre-diagnosis, and I realize that many of the negative emotions I felt then, when I was over-scheduled, came from the fact that I was not taking care of myself. But, we only have one body and one life, so we need to make it worth our stay here on earth!
For a free trial of the latest issue of Wildfire, go to wildfirecommunity.org and request one.