Who takes care of you?

A month before the last term of my Counselling graduate program, I stumbled upon this cartoon while scrolling aimlessly down my Facebook newsfeed.  I hadn’t known it at the time, but several months later as I wrote a final reflection paper for my program supervisor, this sentiment expressed by Jim Rohn epitomized one of the most valuable messages I learned in my three years of training to be a professional helper.

Many of us seem to learn at an early age that helping others is a respectable behavior and taking care of others an even more refined and honorable ability than the former.  As children, we are taught to look out for our siblings; if we are the elder child, we may have even been told explicitly to help take care of our younger siblings.  As adolescents and young adults, we begin to take care of close friends–lending them notes if they miss class, being their sounding board when they feel down, even sometimes giving them rides or other resources as necessary.  Both men and women (perhaps more so women, but that’s another post for another blog) are messaged to take care of their partners, their spouses–in other words, to take care of each other.  

In our highly individualized society, of course, there is great importance in taking good care of one another.  Having recently moved to a new city for the first time in my life, I would surely attest to community and social support being key players in my feelings of wellness each and every day.  I am not dismissing the value of mutual care-taking.

However, in my years of studying the skills and theories of helping, I have also noticed an uprising in the emphasis on self-care as an essential pillar of well-being.  Some emphases are larger than others, but the seed has certainly been planted and is growing fast.  We–whether helping professionals, students, or other individuals who are too often inclined to help, care, and overextend to others on a daily basis– need to remember to also take care of ourselves.  Why?  Because we can!  We know ourselves best.  Our bodies tell us what we need when we need it–whether it is rest, food, social connection, or physical activity sometimes; we just need to learn to look for and listen to the signs and signals.  We are stronger, more resilient, and more capable of caring for ourselves than we know and it takes doing to actually see it and believe it.  Think about it: What are your strengths?  What are your resources?  How do you care for others?  Practicing excellent self-care maintains your physical and mental health, thus facilitating more positive relationships, effective learning, productive work, and–in fact, improves your ability to support others you care about when they need it.

Do you have favorite self-care strategies you want to share with us?  Leave a comment!