” It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, or to make your happiness a priority. It’s necessary.”

Just to think about self-care can be a task in itself. I never really thought about it, to be honest, but it is an essential part of living. We get so busy and caught up living in our everyday lives that we forget about the most important part…ourselves.

Being the pillar in my family and always being the one to hold everyone together, I was always focused on others. Times when I didn’t want to leave my house, because I wanted a Saturday to lounge around, was usually spent cooking and preparing for a family supper, visiting friends or going out to be with my significant other. For years it was everyone else before me.

It wasn’t until 2019 when I really got an eye opener of how important self-care truly is. It was July 2019, when my fiancé decided he wasn’t ready for marriage and could no longer be happy in our relationship, when it all clicked. In this time my family and I were dealing with my mom being sick and in ICU and the one person who I put first for 10 years couldn’t even be my support when I needed someone the most. It was then I realized this was going to be the journey where I need to be there for myself. Yes, I was there for others and I did indeed have so much support, but this is when I needed to care for myself, where I needed to put myself first. Whether it was for 5 minutes, a day or even a week…it was okay to do so, and I should NEVER feel guilty for it.

As the last few years have gone by, life has gotten busier, but I have made the promise to myself to always take one day (or night) a week to practice self-care. In most cases, this is usually a Thursday night bubble bath with country music and candles, a evening getting my nails done or once every 3 months taking a Saturday to go to the salon to get my hair done.

Did you know, self-care can be 5 minutes to just breath?! It can be reading one chapter of a book. It could even mean cooking yourself the homemade meal YOU wanted.

Remember…self-care is doing what makes YOU happy, even if it’s just a few moments of your day.