This is a topic I heard briefly in a podcast a while ago and couldn’t stop thinking about. When we talk about self-care and self-love we often associate it, at least I do, with relaxation and doing things we love and that bring us joy in the moment. However, it‘s more than that.

If you know you‘re a workaholic and don‘t procrastinate often this isn‘t directed towards you, you are probably in need of a little relaxation. This is for other people like me who procrastinate or somewhere in the middle.

On social media, we often see self-care vlogs that include face masks, baths, walks, and other fun and relaxing things which is one side of the coin and I love seeing that. 

The other side is discipline and productivity when it‘s most needed, it‘s getting over procrastination and doing the hard things. 

Let‘s say you have homework or an essay due at midnight and it‘s now four pm and you haven‘t started. Now taking care of yourself doesn‘t mean taking a bath, it means grabbing a bottle of water and starting your school work, and making sure you have done your best when handing it in.

That‘s the type of self-love you need at that moment. You make sure that in the future you succeed in school, get a good job, make good money, and so on. 

Sometimes self-care means delaying instant gratification to get a more significant and long-lasting future reward. Sometimes you have to do the hard thing to love yourself in the future.

Another example can be your health. Eating healthy but balanced and working out consistently (however that consistency looks for you) is an investment into your health and minimizing health risks later on in life. 

Lately, I‘ve been thinking about this. When you‘re young you don‘t think about your health that much because your body and mind still work extremely well but when you get older it starts to decline. In our teen years and young adulthood, we don‘t think about our future health much because we have so many other things to worry about, at least I did. However recently I‘ve become more aware of how I can implement habits to keep my body relatively healthy to help my future self.

For me, self-love and taking care of myself can be expressed in so many beautiful ways. I find it incredibly important to balance these different ways and ask myself what kind of love and care I need from myself in different situations.

It‘s a practice I‘ve been trying to implement more into my life lately and that I wanted to share with you too.