Taking care of yourself: luxury or necessity?

Woman and body

I am a woman, and this post is directed especially to women, although it would not hurt if a guy or two would read it..

As a woman the whole concept of self image, self confidence and taking care of herself is very relevant and deeply ingrained in the very essence of femininity.

Since we are little girls, playing with Barbie dolls, we are confronted with the image of a certain body shape, and the expectations of our surrounding environment concerning our own bodies. Since the depths of history a woman was somehow never 100% in ownership of her own body…but let’s not dig into these deep and lengthy implications.

What I really want to talk about here is a simple concept:

As women we tend to have a deep seated conflict between our own expectations, especially on our body and shape, and the guilt associated with taking care of ourselves, or putting ourselves first, before family and loved ones, when it comes to being the object of our cares.

It comes easy and natural for most women to take care of boyfriends, husbands and children, providing a clean house, a home cooked meal, help with homework or whatever is required. The time and energy to do things for others somehow always take priority…

BUT

What about taking time to take care of ourselves?

Why do we consider the time or money spent for ourselves a luxury?

Luxury or necessity?

I see this trend in all my woman patients. I see it in my friends. I see it myself and my mother.

We always put ourselves last, even making excuses, in order to avoid really facing the fact that we need to be taking care of our body and our health.

We justify it as superficial, unnecessary, frivolous.

We make lists in our heads of all the things we should be doing first, then….if there is any time or money left, maybe…..maybe I will do this for myself.

Self sacrifice is admirable but I feel it really has its place and time. Especially when sometimes I have to be the champion of my patient’s health more than she is herself.  Nobody should care about your own well being more than you!

So while you might think that taking care of yourself and your body is a luxury you can not afford, I firmly believe that you can not afford NOT to do it!

Who will do it otherwise? And who will take care of all your loved ones if you are too sick to do it yourself?

AND how much better will your care for others be when you are rested, healthy, happy and full of energy?!!

Yup, it might seem like an impossible goal, but remember, the little steps are what counts. Many little steps make a long journey!

To me taking care of yourself is a necessity, not a luxury!

Practical choices

Let’s see what simple basic choices you can make, to help taking care of yourself better!

1) The food you eat

The food that we put in to our bodies should be of the highest quality possible.

Clean, real, organic food, preserves our good health. It contains the nutrients and vital energy we need to be alive and well.

By buying cheap foods, and convenient but toxic fast foods, you really undermine the very base of your physical being.

If you think you can not afford to eat healthy foods,  that thinking is flawed, because in the long term, being unhealthy is going to cost you thousands of dollars more than buying organic foods on a daily basis. It is a mental preconception, and you’d better get rid of it if you want the most out of your life….

Diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, these are all expensive diseases! They can cost you thousands of dollars per year…would you not rather invest that money in your good health instead??

  2) The supplements you take 

Not all vitamins are created equal!

Sometimes it is hard to resist the commercials or all the ads, or the vendors at Costco pushing vitamins on you that seem to have miraculous effects.

Honestly I sometimes prefer that my patients use no vitamins rather than cheap drugstore stuff, as it does more harm than good in the long term!

To understand why I am saying this please read my two posts about Whole Food Supplements:

What you don’t know about vitamins, and

Are your supplements food?

Investing in good quality supplements and possibly working with a professional, is money well invested towards a healthier and happier life!

3) Time: The ultimate luxury!

Time must be the most precious commodity of our modern days.

Our lives are constantly bombarded with demands on our time. We run around always late with lists and alarms on our phones. (Yes, I am guilty of that!)

Time is the ultimate luxury goods. Just try to take a day for yourself to do nothing and you will understand how true this is.

But we do desperately need time to feed both our body and our souls. We need to make time to do the things that nurture our very selves, it does not matter if that means hiking a steep mountain or curling up with a good book.

For me that special, much needed luxury is definitively, thermal waters and hot springs, in fact I thought of this post sitting in a hot tub full of mud, totally blissed out.

That is where I realized that no material thing or guilty feeling in the world was equal to the benefit I was getting from that special moment in my mud bath! My body was rejuvenated and my spirit was nurtured. I came out of there 100 pounds of life-weight lighter, and ready to face the world and my work with a recharged battery!

Final Considerations

I really hope this post makes you think a bit….and maybe motivates you to do something for yourself.

I would love to hear YOUR way to heal and nurture your body and soul, if you would be so kind to share it with me in a  comment.

Would also love to give you more ideas if you ask me!