5 Signs You’re Doing Self Care All Wrong and How to Fix it

Self-care is not self indulgent, it’s self preservation.

The term self-care gets thrown around a lot these days. And I believe for good reason. More and more people are starting to come to the realization of just how important a self-care practice truly is for our happiness and our overall wellbeing. Taking care of ourselves should never be seen as selfish.

Many of us practice self-care, or at least we think we do. But have you ever taken the time to really understand what it is, why it’s important, how to do it and maybe even more importantly, how NOT to do it?

Well you’ve come to the right place my friend, because today I’m here to talk all about the ins and out of self-care.

What is a Self-Care Practice?

First of all I don’t want to burst your bubble, but I have to tell you something. You’ve been doing self-care all wrong!

Let me explain.

In short, self-care is taking the appropriate steps to take care of yourself and improve your health. What self-care is not, is over indulging. It’s not about expensive skin care products or bubble baths. It goes so much deeper than that.

So what’s the difference between self-care and pampering?

Pampering is treating yourself to life’s little luxuries once in a while. Buying those new shoes or getting your hair done.

Self-care on the other hand is the act of putting your health first on a daily basis. It’s about taking real action to improve your overall well-being across all areas of your life.

Why is Self Care so Important?

Practicing self-care every single day will help alleviate stress and anxiety, increase happiness, prevent burnout and fatigue, increase your energy levels and help you feel more motivated.

And that’s just to name a few!

With everything going on around us (and most of it being completely out of our control), it is more important than ever that we protect our mental and physical health. And I believe practicing self care on a deeper level will help us achieve just that.

Why Do We Neglect Self-Care?

If self-care is so important to our health, why do so many of us neglect to practice it?

We all live pretty busy lives. If we’re not taking care of the kids, then we’re making trips to the grocery store, working, running errands. The list of to-dos is endless. It can be hard to find the time for ourselves. We get so sucked into the demands of daily life that we forget about our own needs.

But we have to end this way of thinking that “we don’t have enough time.” Our health should always come first. It should never be an after thought.

5 Signs Your Self-Care Practice is All Wrong

#1 You Think it’s Always about Doing what You Enjoy

Self-care is about making decisions that benefit your overall health. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll always enjoy what you’re doing and it’s definitely not always easy. If you’ve made a commitment to yourself to wake up at 6am every morning to workout, I can almost guarantee there will be some mornings where all you want to do is throw your alarm clock at the wall.

But you do it anyways. You get out of bed. Put on those workout clothes and get to it. Why? Because you know it’s good for you. And you also know the discomfort is temporary and well worth it in the end.

#2 Thinking it’s About Self-Indulgence

Hopefully by now you understand that treating yourself is completely different from taking care of yourself. A self-improving self-care practice doesn’t actually require you to spend any money at all. You have everything you need right now to create a fulfilling routine for yourself that will benefit you across all areas of your life.

What self-care really comes down to is acknowledging how you’re feeling and giving yourself what you need to feel your absolute best.

Self-care can look like meditation, journaling, spending time with friends, yoga, going for a run, making dinner together as a family. It’s all about listening to yourself to find what you are needing in that moment.

#3 Only Focusing on One Area of Your Life and Ignoring the Others

When we think self-care, we think of girls in robes with a face mask or washing their face with a foamy cleanser. Now don’t get me wrong, taking care of our skin is of course super important, but it’s not the only area in our lives we need to focus on.

We need to think about taking care of ourselves across all areas of our lives.

And it’s not just about alone time either.

When we need to find stillness and clarity then I absolutely suggest turning to meditation or going for a walk alone to rebalance. But this only covers one aspect of our lives. We are much more complex than that. There is so much more we need in our lives to be happy.

Parts of Our Lives We Need to Invest our Time in Include:

• Self expression/creativity
• Connection with others
• Taking care of our finances
• Taking care of our bodies by exercising and eating healthy
• And of course finding that time to be alone when we need it.

Self-care is about reaching all parts of ourselves to make sure we are fully balanced.

And just to be clear, I’m definitely not saying you need to hit on each one of these every single day. That would be EXHAUSTING! But think about them as you go about your week or your month.

Are there parts of your life that you need to focus on more than others?

#4 Only Doing it on Occasion

What self-care really comes down to is a daily investment in taking care of your health. It’s not a once-in-a-while kind of thing. Think of the examples I gave earlier and try to see how you can apply different ones throughout the day.

Maybe you didn’t workout, but you ate a really healthy dinner.

Maybe you met with an old friend for coffee and spent time catching up.

Maybe you got up a few minutes earlier to meditate.

This daily commitment is how we can make healthy, impactful decisions that affect our lives in the best possible way.

#5 Not Being Aware of how You’re Truly Feeling

Sure, when you’ve had a bad day you could go out and buy a new top or get your nails done, but none of these things really get down to the root of the problem. And none of these will help to actually solve it.

Instead you need to pay attention to yourself and listen. Understand why you’re feeling this way in the first step. Then you can begin taking the necessary steps to start feeling like yourself again.

I hope this has been helpful to better understand that there is far more that goes into a deeper and more meaningful self care practice.

It’s about finding “me” time and surrounding yourself with friends and family. It’s about moving your body and sitting alone in stillness.

Make that conscious decision to choose happiness and your own well-being above everything else. There is always time in the day to take care of you.

How do you practice self-care and what’s your favorite part of your routine? Leave a comment below and let me know 🙂