As parents, we often find it hard to put our own needs first and question whether self-care is selfish. But there's more to self-care than mindfulness activities or stepping away from your kids for a while. Yes, resting and recharging are part of it, but self-care also includes setting clear boundaries and maintaining a work-life balance, which is especially important for working moms.
What is self-care?
Simply said, it's everything you do to maintain your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. It's as straightforward as it seems, yet many people overlook it.
Why is self-care important?
Your well-being is important because it impacts the people around you too. When you practice self-care and set boundaries, you feel empowered and refreshed on the inside, leading to more energy and happiness, which causes everyone around you to feel better.
Mindfulness practices at work
Lack of self-care has always been a problem, particularly for parents in the workplace. In the past mindfulness activities were done at home.
Since the pandemic, our stress levels have hit an all-time high, leading to a major shift toward self-care in office culture. More companies are stressing the importance of mindfulness and encouraging employees to participate in self-care activities. Some companies have even started allowing staff to practice self-care together.
Nonetheless, it's difficult to take this call for being mindful seriously because company definitions of mindfulness fall well short of what workers genuinely need. Many of these organizations require their employees to work long hours without enough breaks, discourage taking vacation time off, and overlook real-life stressors like not having child care and not earning a living wage. While mindfulness email reminders are less costly, proving good health insurance, balanced workloads, and vacation time have the most impact on employees' mental health.
5 Reasons Why Self-Care Isn't Selfish
Self-care is not selfish because it is not a luxury; it is a basic need. It's also a healthy awareness of your right to be treated as a human being. Accepting to give up your independence or health for the sake of duty or regard for someone else's emotions is a breach of your personal care principles.
1. It relieves stress, lowers anxiety while boosting your energy and well-being.
Being overworked causes burnout and anxiety very quickly. Stress is bad for your health because it lowers your immune system, making you more prone to colds, weight gain, sleep issues, stomach ulcers, depression, diabetes, and heart disease. Being mindful of your needs and setting clear boundaries has been shown to improves happiness and reduce stress. It also helps lower your risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cancer.
2. It increases productivity and helps us make better decisions.
Being attentive to your needs puts you in a healthy state of mind and allows you to make good choices. You're also less likely to take part in stress-related numbing behaviors, may contribute to obesity, illness, poor sleep, and depression such as binge eating or drinking.
3. Self-care makes us better parents and moms.
Taking care of our emotional and mental well-being makes caring for other people's needs easier. Self-care isn't selfish because it allows us to be more attentive to our kids. Giving out of guilt is not the same as giving out of love.
4. It reminds us that there's more to life than helping others.
When you put other people's needs before your own, you end up ignoring your own goals. Pursing your interests is an important because it's a major part for leading a happy and fulfilled life.
5. It helps to build strong relationships with others.
Practicing self-care activities isn't selfish because it shows that you understand your needs, wants, and know your limits.
Is self-care selfish? - Final Thoughts
It's important for moms to know that self-care isn't selfish. It does not mean that you do not care about your loved ones. Setting boundaries means you have more to give, which is not selfish at all. Do you intend to begin the new year with a thoughtful attitude? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below.
Visit our blog page for more helpful parenting articles, or read our post on 5 Ways To Encourage Baby To Play Independently.