We talk so much about self-care these days. I wish we also talked a little more about how hard self-care can be. A manicure and a bubble bath are amazing, but what’s more important is that self-care is as layered as a 31-layer Tiramisu cake. Manicures and bubble baths are but a single layer. Rest is another. There are so many more.

Self-care is also forcing yourself to learn and adapt to a healthy daily routine. It’s caring and choosing what you consume. It’s reading and learning. It’s intentional growth. We all know that growth is a mess. It’s working out when you don’t exactly feel like it. It’s calling yourself out when you start to make unhealthier choices. 

It’s tending to your presence like you would a fire you desperately need… because that is what your consciousness and presence are: Your fire. Your Glow. Your life. Are you where you are right now? Read that last line again. Does considering that life is essential “now’s” strung together help?

Self-care is weeding out negative influences. It’s enduring the discomfort of removing yourself from unhealthy situations. It’s being truthful with yourself. It’s loving the greater and lesser of your body, mind, and soul but cultivating room to grow or tend or maintain each one. That’s work. It’s a lot of work. 

It’s laughing from a deep and healthy place, and crying from there too. It’s taking time to understand a deep and fundamentally important truth… you are the observer of your thoughts. It’s grasping the idea that your thoughts are a tape in a record player, and you wield the power to change the tape. 

It’s understanding that getting your glow is not easy. Maintaining it requires some work too. It’s also understanding that there is no worthy alternative. Once you experience the inexplicable magic of that glow, you will also know that it’s well worth the work. 

Above all, self-care is noticing. Noticing yourself. Noticing others. Noticing the moments. The poetry in the spaces between the mundane moments of life. Noticing Go. Noticing Life.

Self-care is beautiful. 

It is also messy. 

Dig Deep.