Self-care is listening to yourself first, then taking care of yourself.
“You can’t take care of someone you don’t listen to. Self-care is listening to yourself first, then taking care of yourself.”
Imagine if you were placed in charge of a child and you had to look after them to ensure their well-being. Let’s say the child was in physical danger and screamed out “Help, I am stuck!” Would you completely ignore them or would you try to do something?
If your answer is to ignore them, you shouldn’t be taking care of a child. If your answer is to listen and do something, then, we will say that you are a logical and good human being.
If you can do this for a child, why not do the same thing for yourself?
Self-Talk and Self-Knowledge
Self-Talk is the act or practice of talking to oneself, either aloud or silently. It serves as a verbal input for programming of the mind which results in life output. Henceforth, what you get out of life is the result of you put into your mind through the senses and your self-talk.
It is often done in a destructive way rather than a positive way. We often say things to ourselves when we serve as a conscientious judge and jury.
How much do you listen to yourself? I’m not asking how much you talk to yourself but how much do you listen?
Listening comes in many forms: listening to your thoughts, listening to your heart, and listening to your gut. Your thoughts reflect your current state of mind, which means undirected thoughts can’t always be trusted.
Listening to Your Thoughts
Thoughts must be intentionally directed or effortlessly suppressed to match your life’s direction or else it’ll lead you based on its own conclusion. So listening to your mind allows hearing the story going on and intervene to change that story to match what you want.
Listening to Your Heart
We listen to our hearts when we make decisions with little facts but a high level of certainty that you made the right choice. Heart decisions are intuitive decisions pumped out by the mystic forces of the universe. We should make the most important life decisions with our heart.
Listening to The Gut
Gut decisions are decisions the mind passes on to the gut for a second layer of approval. The gut acts as the second brain to let you know whether your physiology agrees with the psychology of your decisions. This can come in the form of a knot in your stomach, butterflies in your stomach or just discomfort; this is the body communicating your true emotion through your gut. So you just listen to it and feel what the gut is looking to communicate.