Self Care - Writing Challenge, Day 13
I was reading a Thought Catalog article about self care this morning that really resonated with me. Basically, the gist of the article was about how you should build your life so that you don't constantly need to take "breaks" from it in the form of self care that our society seems to push these days - all the gimmicks that there are for getting away or spending money on something trendy to take a break from it all.
I don't know about you, but I don't have the money to spend on all that junk anyway. I'm not about to waste my hard-earned money on something like that, so I've already had to deal with this issue head on. I used to feel so over-worked during college and in the first couple years after that I did feel like I needed breaks from it all. I didn't necessarily get the time or have the funds to have said breaks, but I felt overwhelmed and sometimes like I was at my breaking point. I was always stressed. I didn't take care of myself like I should have. Sleeping 3-4 hours a night is not a sustainable way to live. Eating junk food when you're not at your food service job to be able to get the built-in meal isn't a healthy way to eat. We all go out for fast food every once in a while, but I was pretty much living off of Sheetz and microwave food and chips.
Between the junked-up diet, the screwed up sleep schedule, and taking zero time to just relax for a few minutes and collect my thoughts, I was a pretty anxiety-ridden, crappy-feeling individual for a large part of my later college years and the first few years after. I don't know how obvious that was to the outside world, but it was there. Losing my grandma and going through a couple bad breakups during that time definitely didn't help.
The thing was, I didn't take a lot of time to really slow down and evaluate it all and figure out a better way. A couple of times I started trying to eat healthier and exercise more, and I felt way better. But my sleep schedule was still way off because, between a 17-20 credit schedule every semester that usually included classes and 1-3 labs (depending on which semester we're talking about), plus my work study and my part-time job at the cafeteria, and the studying/homework that went along with all of that, there just weren't enough hours in the day.
I wish I had taken the time to figure out a better way to deal with all of it. I know I wasn't the only one with that kind of workload, so I know there had to have been a better way.
When I was waitressing after moving back to Elkins, I had a lot of the same issues. My work hours varied a lot, so I never had a set schedule. A lot of time I worked closing shift, so I didn't get home until close to 1 AM, then had to turn around and go in to open the next morning. I ate like crap because even though I worked in food service, I didn't get a free meal or time to eat it like I had at Sodexo for certain shifts. I had other family-related obligations and was on the road a lot when I wasn't working, and things were just crazy for a while.
It's not been until the past few years that I've actually gotten it together and concentrated on trying to get better sleep, trying to have better meals, and usually trying to get at least some exercise through the week, even if I don't hit my full exercise goal. Those 2-3 things have made a huge difference in my life. It seems so simple, but it's something I took completely for granted growing up and didn't realize just how important it really was until I got a normal routine back and could feel the difference in comparison to how I had been living.
So, to me, self care isn't about taking a break from it all. The part from the article that resonated with me was about building your life so that you don't need a break from it. I didn't do things in a way back then that made me feel like I didn't need a break. Now, I've been able to acquire a job with a set schedule. I plan meals (you've seen the blog posts!). I try to work out when I can. And I try to take time to do things I enjoy. That's something I've had to work at. For so long, I didn't give myself time to just do things that I enjoyed because I was so busy trying to be perfect in everything else I was already trying to do. It was not a sustainable way to live, and I probably set the bar way to high for myself. All I did was completely burn myself out.
Sleep. Food. Routine. Fun. Friends. In my opinion, at least from my experience, those are some of the main things I need to focus on to be happy. And those are the main things I ended up neglecting throughout college and immediately beyond. Self-care is about finding your balance and being able to maintain your happiness. Things don't need to be perfect. You should always have some goals in mind to be reaching for, but perfection is not required. We as humans are not perfect, so why do we expect ourselves to be?
Be happy, friends. Finding your balance starts with you, so find it, and fight like hell to keep it.
I don't know about you, but I don't have the money to spend on all that junk anyway. I'm not about to waste my hard-earned money on something like that, so I've already had to deal with this issue head on. I used to feel so over-worked during college and in the first couple years after that I did feel like I needed breaks from it all. I didn't necessarily get the time or have the funds to have said breaks, but I felt overwhelmed and sometimes like I was at my breaking point. I was always stressed. I didn't take care of myself like I should have. Sleeping 3-4 hours a night is not a sustainable way to live. Eating junk food when you're not at your food service job to be able to get the built-in meal isn't a healthy way to eat. We all go out for fast food every once in a while, but I was pretty much living off of Sheetz and microwave food and chips.
Between the junked-up diet, the screwed up sleep schedule, and taking zero time to just relax for a few minutes and collect my thoughts, I was a pretty anxiety-ridden, crappy-feeling individual for a large part of my later college years and the first few years after. I don't know how obvious that was to the outside world, but it was there. Losing my grandma and going through a couple bad breakups during that time definitely didn't help.
The thing was, I didn't take a lot of time to really slow down and evaluate it all and figure out a better way. A couple of times I started trying to eat healthier and exercise more, and I felt way better. But my sleep schedule was still way off because, between a 17-20 credit schedule every semester that usually included classes and 1-3 labs (depending on which semester we're talking about), plus my work study and my part-time job at the cafeteria, and the studying/homework that went along with all of that, there just weren't enough hours in the day.
I wish I had taken the time to figure out a better way to deal with all of it. I know I wasn't the only one with that kind of workload, so I know there had to have been a better way.
When I was waitressing after moving back to Elkins, I had a lot of the same issues. My work hours varied a lot, so I never had a set schedule. A lot of time I worked closing shift, so I didn't get home until close to 1 AM, then had to turn around and go in to open the next morning. I ate like crap because even though I worked in food service, I didn't get a free meal or time to eat it like I had at Sodexo for certain shifts. I had other family-related obligations and was on the road a lot when I wasn't working, and things were just crazy for a while.
It's not been until the past few years that I've actually gotten it together and concentrated on trying to get better sleep, trying to have better meals, and usually trying to get at least some exercise through the week, even if I don't hit my full exercise goal. Those 2-3 things have made a huge difference in my life. It seems so simple, but it's something I took completely for granted growing up and didn't realize just how important it really was until I got a normal routine back and could feel the difference in comparison to how I had been living.
So, to me, self care isn't about taking a break from it all. The part from the article that resonated with me was about building your life so that you don't need a break from it. I didn't do things in a way back then that made me feel like I didn't need a break. Now, I've been able to acquire a job with a set schedule. I plan meals (you've seen the blog posts!). I try to work out when I can. And I try to take time to do things I enjoy. That's something I've had to work at. For so long, I didn't give myself time to just do things that I enjoyed because I was so busy trying to be perfect in everything else I was already trying to do. It was not a sustainable way to live, and I probably set the bar way to high for myself. All I did was completely burn myself out.
Sleep. Food. Routine. Fun. Friends. In my opinion, at least from my experience, those are some of the main things I need to focus on to be happy. And those are the main things I ended up neglecting throughout college and immediately beyond. Self-care is about finding your balance and being able to maintain your happiness. Things don't need to be perfect. You should always have some goals in mind to be reaching for, but perfection is not required. We as humans are not perfect, so why do we expect ourselves to be?
Be happy, friends. Finding your balance starts with you, so find it, and fight like hell to keep it.
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