Choosing Wellness: Navigating the Waters of Reactive and Proactive Self-Care
January 28, 2024 | Supreeya S
Let’s talk about self-care. Self-care is taking the time to do things that help your physical, emotional, and mental health. We all need to take care of ourselves. Some people enjoy it. Others only realize they need self-care at their lowest points in life.
What about you? When do you realize that you need to take care of yourself? If it’s when you have no other choice because everything is crumbling, keep reading. There’s a better way for you to try.
There are two types of self-care – reactive and proactive. In either, the difference is not in what you do. You could meditate, journal, spend time in nature, or take a walk. The difference is in how it recharges you. More often than not, one of these types will require A LOT more self-care for you to get back to a point you feel ok.
Reactive Self-Care
Reactive self-care is a form of escapism. You just can’t anymore. So you avoid people. You avoid phone calls. You avoid anything and everything. You hide yourself away. You avoid decisions and replying to texts.
You’re burnt out. You’re stressed. You have no energy left for anything. And then you try to fix it by isolating yourself. You turn off your phone. You order in a pizza, you make yourself a bubble bath, and you settle in with a glass of wine and an episode of FRIENDS. That’s reactive. Your battery is completely drained, and you have left yourself no other choice but to take care of you.
Reactive self-care means you have to crash before you allow yourself to take care of you.
Surely, there’s a better way?
Proactive Self-Care
Proactive self-care means you are aware of your needs and what makes you feel good. It starts with awareness and it continues with commitment. Commitment with yourself. Prioritizing yourself. It’s like brushing your teeth or taking a shower. It’s what you need to do to show up in the world.
You get to decide what that looks like. You can give an hour to yourself everyday – to meditate, journal, move your body, and check in with yourself. Or it could be a 5 minute morning stretch. Find what recharges you AND what’s realistic for your schedule.
If it sounds optional or postpone-able, you’ll learn that it’s not. You have to take care of you. In the long-run, you can’t outrun self-care.
Reframe self-care from optional to a non-negotiable. It will help you to show up as your best self. You’ll be able to do much more, reach your goals, and spread good energy to people around you. Most importantly, you don’t have to constantly crash and burn.
You build your day in a way where you don’t ever feel like you have to escape from it. Be proactive. Choose to add in some wellness practices that work for you, that make you feel good.
Conclusion
The key here is not the what. It’s not what you do. It’s not about meditating, sauna, pilates. You get to pick what you do.
The key difference is the timing. Do it daily, with the love that you have for yourself.
So, how about it? Will you take care of yourself now and every day? Or will you wait until it’s crisis mode to take a moment for yourself?
You get to pick. But if you’ve ever been ill or burnt out, you’ll know that it takes so much longer to recover. Why not be proactive?