Self-Care Reflection through Subtraction (July Self-Care Challenge Day 1)

@SoulfullyAButterfly

Imagine that you cannot self-care for one whole month. How would this change your life? Be honest and share your answers. This is our starting point - realizing that we do need self-care, already do some form of self-care, but can always use the improvement.

@SoulfullyAButterfly

I've been there to some extent. It would feel like a month of depression or a month following a massive change in you life. Basically, a time where all comforts feel like they are in flux and self care and betterment routines are having to fall behind new focus or current circumstance. It's something inconvenient, but you can probably ultimately come back from it better than you might think.

Like others have shared. Physically, I would look and feel terrible with a whole month of no self care.

But emotionally I think the value I put on myself, my life, my contributions to the world and those around me would be non existent. This, I think, is the part that thinking about it makes want to cry. Having been in a similar spot earlier in my life, i now dread that feeling. It feels like I am in a hole where nothing matters to me, so why even bother. And the more ugly things got, the way I figured out for them not to hurt was to not care. It was a never ending cycle.

Today, I would like to learn more about self worth, so that I can learn how to continue to heal and learn not to make the same mistakes again.

With serious chronic illnesses, care is essential and vital. Without self-care my survival would depend on care by others and even with that my health would likely significantly decline as without participation needs can only be met so far.

I imagine I would be miserable. Lonely, out of touch with myself, a pyschical disaster, burnt out and exhausted.

A month without ANY self care? I don’t think you would sooner than a month without self care. So the way it would affect my life would be that it would end and I would literally be dead.

No self care for a month? Anxiety would be much worse because there would be nothing to help calm it. SH would be worse because there would be nothing to distract and help remember to be gentle. Isolation would deepen because there wouldn't be any socializing. The house would be a wreck and the yard would be a jungle. The garden and flowers would d*e

@SoulfullyAButterfly

Imagine that you cannot self-care for one whole month. How would this change your life?

Okay, I am going to go as far as no bathing, brushing teeth or hair, or changing clothes for an entire month. If I do not bathe for an entire month, I will be all gross and dirty. I will smell like death, and that is not good. Let's not brush my teeth. I will get plaque that will make my mouth so nasty that bacteria will grow in there and it could make my teeth turn green, then they will eventually need to be pulled out due to decay. On to the hair, shall we? I would have rat's nests so bad that my head would have to be shaved because I haven't combed it in a month, not to mention the creepy crawlers that feed on dirty bodies would become your best friend. Not changing your clothes would make you stink even worse, especially when you don't change your bra and underwear. You will get an odor that you do not want. Once a week is better than none, but at least every other night if not every night. I know these things from a major breakdown 10 years ago and I went from taking care of myself bathing every night and brushing my hair 2× A day and teeth once a day to bathing once a week and rarely combing my hair and teeth occasionally. It's been a long road to recovery and still have a long way to go, and the other night I decided to start bathing every night and comb my hair 2× A day like I used to before my breakdown in '12. Thank you!

I would feel exhausted and burnt out. It would also negatively impact my productivity by feeling not energetic to carry out my daily tasks.

What exactly do u mean when saying self-care? People most probably have different ideas of it.