Welcome to Self-Care Sunday
Illustration by Malaika Astorga (@flloral_art)
To me, Sundays have always been a day for self-care, to truly pamper myself and get ready for the week ahead. As depression took over my life, taking care of myself became a secondary role in my routine. I could barely get up to make myself a meal, let alone put moisturizer on my body or wash my hair. My days felt like a continuous stream of hours and minutes and seconds, with no breaks in between. I felt weak and guilty for feeling weak. I felt that I had to reassure and explain to everyone what was happening to me. I felt like I needed to have good grades since it was my last semester of University. I felt like I needed to be there for my friends who were going through similar situations. Taking care of others became my priority; taking care of myself was not.
What I did not know at that point was that eating and resting and doing what was needed to get through the day was self-care. We see self-care as a face masked, glamorized heaven. The same way self-care can be fancy and glamorous; it can also revolve around accomplishing the simplest tasks when everything feels immensely difficult.
Self-care isn't always about doing your nails and putting on a facemask. Self-care is about being honest with yourself about what you need and putting those needs first — doing whatever you have to do to feel healthy, to keep getting stronger and feeling more confident and secure with yourself. Self-care can be about forcing yourself to go outside when all you want to do is lay in bed all day. Self-care can be about forcing yourself to drink some water or eat something healthy when all you want to do is eat junk food or nothing at all. Self-care can be about taking a shower or putting on clean clothes when you've been in pyjamas for days. Self-care can be ugly and can force you to face unhealthy and toxic habits you're engaging in — talking to people who are triggering and make you feel like crap, not being able to express yourself properly, taking your pain and problems out on others.
I'll be sharing my self-care journey on Pink Things and talking about the issues I've encountered and tips and tricks that can help our readers start their journey as well. I'll be talking about the ugly and down-to-earth side of self-care, and also about the fun, glamorous side of it. I'd love to take your questions and help you to the best of my ability or give you some advice based on my experience. If you'd like to get involved you can email Pink Things, DM us on Instagram, or DM me @_tinypieces.
Can't wait to hear from you!
xx Inês