The Importance of Self-Care While Caring for Others
Caring for others can be tiring and frustrating work. While watching those around us suffer isn’t ideal, neither is carrying all the weight of the world on our shoulders and depleting our spirits. Here’s your reminder to give yourself grace and love, too.
Sometimes, in all of our “being the backbone” for others, we can neglect ourselves. From putting aside our needs completely and holding in our emotions to supporting everyone and facing our struggles alone can take a toll on our spirits.
Mainstream society calls it compassion fatigue, over-caring, and over-working, but to us, it can look like being “ride or die” in relationships, being the friend everyone goes to for advice, or supporting our family’s needs. But this type of caring can sometimes overwhelm our spirits.
Aside from making us physically and emotionally tired, being there for others at the expense of ourselves can lead to negative self-talk. And negative self-talk keeps us from replenishing our own spirits. But that doesn’t mean we have to abandon our loved ones. It means we take time to pour into ourselves, too.
When negative self-talk starts, we can practice quieting the voice by reassuring ourselves that our spirits are trying to care for us, too. Then, reframe that criticism into something positive. Here’s how we can practice.
Take a moment to breathe in and say: Helping others is an act of love. Breathe out and affirm: Helping myself is an act of love, too.
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