Self-care is such an important aspect of our day-to-day life, but so many people don’t consider it a virtual tool to have in their daily routine. Something as simple as meditation or getting out of the house for the day can help improve your mental health so much.
Did you know that just over 40% of Australians believe mental health has a significant purpose in our life? This is a ridiculous percentage, aren’t I right?! Many Australians put their work, children, and family before caring for themselves. Like I can understand why, as we need to have a job to live, and our priority goes towards helping our own families these days, but your own mental health is important too.
According to the University of Victoria in Melbourne, “The State of Self-Care in Australia is a review of the ways in which Australia is attempting to encourage and enable individuals to look after their own health and wellbeing.”
From my own experience, self-care supports me mentally and with my CP – Cerebral Palsy. Having CP means it takes you double the energy to do tasks. e.g., it would take a non-disabled person three spoons to get out of bed and brush their teeth; for someone with CP this would take them six spoons, if not more depending on how impacted their CP is.
A myth about disability is that “People with disabilities can’t be happy within themselves”, which isn’t true. There are a lot of disabled people out there that enjoy themselves and just want to live a normal life like anyone else, there are also people like me Carly Findlay and Kurt Fearnley who are out there every day trying to break down stigmas and barriers which is associated with disability. Also, there are also people with disabilities out in the world who don’t want to be identified as someone living with a disability, and this is okay too!
My journey
I personally believe that self-care is the number one tool you can use for yourself to be or become the best version of yourself. This looks different for everyone, but at the end of the day, it’s how you treat yourself in a positive way. I do this by getting my hair washed by professionals, having a nap when I’m working/studying from home, deciding to stay home to cuddle up and watch TV shows all day long, etc.
After going through the journey of discovering that I have a few mental health conditions alongside learning what my triggers are for those episodes to happen; I’ve discovered that having self-care in my day-to-day routine is more important than ever. If I take Uber to or from my studies one day I don’t beat myself up on it, because I’ve done the work and I know how important it is for me to take this accessible way home. Yes, the train station is right there … right over the road, but if there are no spoons in my body anymore how can I head there knowing I won’t miss my stop if I fall asleep.
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