The wellness industry has created awareness for improved mental health, yes, but it’s also morphed into just another way to be perfect. Yes — even the perfect self-care routine.
Taking time to administer a healthy dose of self-care can trigger feelings of guilt (I should be working/cleaning/spending more time with my spouse/kids), or stir up unresolved feelings related to self-worth. And this pretty much ruins the idea of self-care being helpful — it moves it over into the trigger category.
Instead of getting hung up on the social idea of perfect self-care, I invite you to explore focusing on your emotional health.
Emotional health is an important part of overall health and should be a top priority in self-care. People who are emotionally healthy are in control of their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They’re able to cope with life’s challenges, keep problems in perspective, and bounce back from setbacks. They feel good about themselves and have good relationships.
Being emotionally healthy doesn’t mean you’re happy all the time. It means you’re aware of your emotions. You can deal with them, whether they’re positive or negative. Emotionally healthy people still feel stress, anger, and sadness. But they know how to manage their negative feelings. They can tell when a problem is more than they can handle on their own and know when to seek help.
If you feel strongly about developing an emotional health care practice, but don’t know how to make it work for you, then chat with myself or one of our mental health professionals and we'll work together to come up with a plan specifically for you that helps instead of harms.
