In this piece forĀ Thought Catalog, Brianna West redefines self-care as actions we take to build a life that feels fulfilling, not a reprieve from a life that feels exhausting and overwhelming.
“It is often doingĀ the ugliest thing that you have to do, like sweat through another workout or tell a toxic friend you donāt want to see them anymore or get a second job so you can have a savings account or figure out a way to accept yourself so that youāre not constantly exhausted from trying to beĀ everything, all the timeĀ and thenĀ needing to take deliberate, mandated breaks fromĀ livingĀ to doĀ basic thingsĀ like drop some oil into a bath and read Marie Claire and turn your phone off for the day.
A world in which self-care has to be such a trendy topic is a world that is sick. Self-care should not be something we resort to because we are so absolutely exhausted that we need some reprieve from our own relentless internal pressure.
True self-care is not salt baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice toĀ build a life you donāt need to regularly escape from.”
