Tag Archives: Self-Care

Redefining What It Means to Be Busy

Posted in Health and Wellness, Personal Growth, Social Connection and Relationships by

A few months ago, if you had asked me to describe my life, I would’ve told you I was busy: busy transitioning to a new job, busy preparing a presentation for a conference, busy managing social media and moderating a panel for a board I am on, busy networking, busy hanging out with friends, busy dating (or deciding not to date), busy going to the gym (or deciding not to go to the gym), busy going to yoga, busy napping … busy … busy …. busy.

Now when I say I’m busy, I really mean it. Seriously, my life a few months ago felt like such luxury. I had many projects, tasks, and activities to manage, but I loved it all. I really LOVED my life. I really loved myself. When friends were asking me for life updates, I told them that I was the coolest person I knew. I meant that both seriously and not so seriously.

For friends who had known me a long time, they knew that I had gone through my share of unexpected adventures with job transitions, promotions at work and volunteering as a hotline counselor for a rape crisis center, relationship changes, deaths and health issues among people close to me, and my own health issues even before breast cancer.

People are used to me persisting. In some ways, I wonder if that’s why it’s hard for some individuals to understand how concerned I am about the future.

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Let People Love You: Community Care Knows No Boundaries

Posted in Global Issues, Health and Wellness, Personal Growth, Social Connection and Relationships by

I’m no stranger to promoting self-care. On this blog, I’ve discussed how to Start Your Day on a Positive Note, Real Self-Care When Your Life Isn’t Paradise, Dealing with Long-Term Stress, and how to Make Over Your Life … Gradually. These posts address how minor and major actions can have a cumulative effect on how you can survive and thrive through hardship.

Self-care is a process, not a product.

When I haven’t discussed self-care, I’ve told you all to Create More Space for Kindness and Don’t Forget About the World Around You. In those posts, it was about creating more space to care for others and cultivate change in the world.

My past posts haven’t talked explicitly about community care—specifically community care for yourself.

In the Mashable article Self-care isn’t enough. We need community care to thrive., Heather Dockray states, “Unlike self-care, community care does not place the onus of compassion on a single individual … Community care involves more than one person. It can include two, three, or possibly hundreds of people. You can practice community care in your personal offline life or even in digital spaces.”

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Allow Yourself to Just -Be-

Posted in Health and Wellness, Personal Growth, Social Connection and Relationships by

In my last post, I mentioned that several loved ones have been struggling with some of the most difficult times of their lives. In all of these cases, there were health issues at the center of those difficulties. At the time I wrote my last post, I didn’t know what would be the outcomes of their situations, but last night I found out how one story ended: one of my loved ones passed away.

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Photo from Flickr

My cousin isn’t here anymore because of sudden complications with his health, and I’m wondering what made those complications so sudden. Was it truly a medical mystery, or was this another example of someone dying because that person lacked access to adequate healthcare?

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Real Self-Care When Your Life Isn’t Paradise

Posted in Health and Wellness, Personal Growth, Social Connection and Relationships by

Almost each day someone asks me, “Hi. How are you doing?”

That someone could be a coworker, cashier, bus driver, neighbor, or another person that randomly ends up in my path.

Inevitably, I respond, “Fine. How are you?”

Then that person answers in one to two words. The reply might not be a full sentence. Bonus points if it is.

These daily exchanges between others and me can be so brief that there is little room for follow-up questions. There is no way for others and I to verify each other’s answers. Are we really fine? What makes us fine?

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Photo from Flickr

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Why I’m a Fan of Minimalism But Not the Movement

Posted in Global Issues, Personal Growth by

I’m not a materialistic person. Since I was in high school, I have gravitated toward a career path in education that does not facilitate a life of luxury; therefore, I’ve had to be mindful of my expenses.

Do I have fun and buy nice things? Yes, on a budget. Do I believe in self-care? Sure. I’ll go on vacation; it might be in a hostel, cheap hotel, or friend’s home, but I’ll go on a trip. Do I believe in self-indulgence? Sometimes. However, because of the career path I’ve chosen, self-indulgence can happen only so often.

Due to my desire to be intentional with my spending, I follow social media accounts such as becoming minimalist to inspire me to live a life with more meaning and simplicity.

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Photo from Flickr

Being a minimalist is most challenging for me during the holidays because that is when sales are inescapable. After reading Reflections on Black Friday Shopping by Joshua Becker of becoming minimalist, I felt guilty about my Black Friday shopping spree. In this blog post, Becker argued that this day was a “celebration of unbridled consumerism.”

Then I stopped feeling guilty when I remembered a past conversation with my friend. She stated that shopping sprees are not bad as long as you plan for them in advance. Like anything else, consumer habits need to be judged within the proper context.

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Don’t Forget the World Around You

Posted in Global Issues, Personal Growth by

America has been mourning the deaths of nine victims in the shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC, that happened on Wednesday night. By Thursday morning, the police’s manhunt for the alleged shooter came to an end when florist Debbie Mills spotted Dylann Roof in a car in Kings Mountain, NC, and reported her sighting to police. In the days since the shooting, federal authorities have been investigating the attack as a hate crime.

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Photo from Public Domain Archive

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