Why Do We Struggle With Self-Care?

By Eronda Wilkerson

We all know that self-care is important to your well-being and success in life. This fact alone doesn't make it any easier to carve out more time in your life for it. Please keep reading to discover some of the reasons you may struggle with self-care so that you can be more aware as you try to work it into your routine.

You Feel Shame

Many people don’t find the time for self-care for the simple reason that deep down; they don't believe that they deserve it. This comes from a poor self-imagewhen an individual doesn't believe they are worth the time for proper self-care. Improving your self-image and reminding yourself that you are deserving of self-care can make it easier to schedule time in your busy life for it.

You Don’t Want to Make the Effort

It is also an effort to set aside time out of your schedule to take care of yourself, and some people are too lazy to make this effort. Often this laziness goes back to a poor self-image or poor time management, or both, so these two aspects may need to be addressed if you find yourself not wanting to make an effort to include self-care in your life. Sometimes these people find it is easier to engage in self-care when they put it directly into their schedule.

You Don’t Know What Self-Care is

In this day and age, it is common to hear people say "treat yourself," and it's important to distinguish that treating yourself is not self-care. Treating yourself should come as a reward after a specific activity, not a regular staple in your life. For example, "treatingyourself" is an ice cream cone on a Friday night, while "self-care" is being sure you eat enough healthy fruits and vegetables. When put the proper foods in system you will feel much better and might have more energy to take care of yourself. Self care is must.

You Are Tired

The number one reason that people struggle with self-care is that they are tired. This is a self-perpetuating problem because, without proper self-care, you will feel increasingly tired. If this is something you struggle with, it's important to get over that first hump of self-care and get yourself some rest so that you don't feel too tired for future self-care sessions.

I also believe that the reason why people struggle with self care is because they have a lot of things going and do not take the time to slow down to focus on self. People are constantly giving to others and by the time it comes to doing self care for themselves, they are drained or might even feel guilty that extra money is spent on self instead of things that could be considered more important.

You have to realize that you matter; no matter what is going on in your daily life. Try to do at least one thing for yourself every paycheck. It can be as simple as buying a new nail polish or even a new piece of clothing. Being an adult who carries many different titles gets in the way of life but you have to find a way to make it happen. Coming from me, it is a struggle but I have to tell myself on a daily basis that it’s ok to do nice things for myself .

All in all, there are several reasons you could be struggling with self-care. This article might not even list your specific reason here. Regardless, it would be best if you found out why you are struggling with self-care so that you can solve the problem. Without self-care, you will be tired and stressed for the rest of your life.