Self Care Series
“It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, and to make your happiness a priority. It’s necessary.”- Mandy Hale
The journey to self-discovery is long and challenging. One chapter of the journey that many people, including myself, might overlook is self-care. Self-care is something that I don’t do often because I’m always running around, helping other people, or just constantly busy. But since the beginning of the year, I’ve had A LOT of time to myself. I’ve figured out what I needed to do to better myself and learned how to make myself a priority.
Everyone hits rock bottom at some point during their lives. We all go through rough times and sometimes we don’t know how to deal with it. Right now, it’s been difficult being coped up in an apartment with little contact with the family. What I’ve been doing during quarantine, and even before this, was writing in a journal. Owning a journal is probably one of the best things that I’ve done for myself. I’m that type of person where I won’t say how I feel at that moment because I feel like people won’t hear me when I speak. I’ve had a journal here and there, but for the past half-year, I’ve been dedicated to writing in my journal and expressing how I felt during the day, what happened during my day, and things that bother me. And after every night of writing, I feel as though a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.
Another reason why I write in my journal is that I live by “never carrying negativity of yesterday into tomorrow.” So if someone got me heated during the day, I write about in my journal, get all of my feelings out, and then I wake up the next day feeling good, fresh, and positive, instead of hanging on to the angry.
I’ve also been working out a lot more. Anyone who knew me during college can say that I was at the gym every day. Going to the gym was like going to class. Since I’ve moved a year ago, I fell off of going to the gym. I didn’t have access to go to the gym in my complex nor did I have time to have a gym membership because I worked and had classes right after work. So for six months, I was working out here and there, but nothing solid. Since January, I have been seriously working out again, and my body feels so much better. I have gotten stronger and I feel better, internally, and externally.
Something else that I’ve started to do is skincare. I’ve never really cared for facial masks and scrubs, in the past. I would only have the occasional moisturizer and that’s it. But let me tell ya’ll something. Since I’ve started a whole skincare line, morning and night routines, my face has been brighter. My dark spots have been going away. And something about having brighter and clearer skin boosted my confidence. Here is some advice. Go out to Ulta, Sephora, or Target, and invest in skincare. You will thank me later.
Taking care of your spiritual state should be under self-care. For me, I need to be grounded and be more centered. For a few months more, I’ve been doing a lot of meditation and it truly helps. I tell my friends that after I meditate, I feel lighter as if all the negativity from my body drifted out of me. I usually meditate in the evening/ at night to reassess my body. I put on a Spotify meditating playlist, I lay down, and yes, I have my little healing crystals around me while I meditate. I highly recommend for people to start meditating and start to connect themselves with their spirits.
What I’ve also been doing is reading the Bible. From the beginning. I have a strong faith in God, and with everything that is going on in 2020, I decided that I was going to go on this adventure and read the Bible from start to finish. I want my faith to be stronger, and I want to understand the Bible more.
Please take care of yourself during this time. I know that things are difficult, but you need to make yourself a priority and look after your well being. Self-care is not just limited to what I listed, but it’s the self-care that I need to do for my body. Treat your body right because your body is your temple.
Nadine Bourne's Blog 