Why doesn't taking care of myself come naturally to me?

Taking care of ourselves - emotionally, physically, mentally - is something that many of us struggle with. At times, it may be connected to a phase in our lives where we may be under stress and don't feel we have the time, or energy, to take care of ourselves. Other times, it can be a learned behaviour (or lack thereof). Either we don't have an example of self-care in our close circle - family, friends, or, perhaps, at times we may have been raised or influenced by those around us that perhaps we don't deserve to be cared for. This can lead to quite a negative impact if we don't make the effort to correct this. It isn't self centred, or selfish, to take care of ourselves, although at times in society it can be cast as such. It is highly important to our quality of life, to take care of ourselves. If this doesn't come naturally to you, you can take steps to learn positive self care behaviour and practice it daily to set a habit that you can work to ingrain in your life.

I find that taking care of yourself is one of those lessons that come with adulthood. Growing up, most people usually have a support system that care of them. So most people don't have to worry about taking care of themselves until they move out. I remember when I moved out that I had to meal prep, which is a lot of work. I realized that I have so much more respect for my parents for feeding me because coming up with different meal options is a lot. So it makes sense that taking care of yourself doesn't come naturally, because it is something we all have to learn.

There can be so many reasons behind this you must be seeing taking care of yourself as something which is an act of selfishness when it's actually not. You must be feeling as if the things that the other person is going through are more tragic than what you are going through when in reality everything you feel is valid and it's always a good idea to reach out for help❤️ So try to think of reasons as to why you personally don't feel like considering taking care of yourself. You can maybe write them down and also consider talking to someone about it this might help you to analyse things in a better way🙃

Taking care of myself never comes naturally to me because i’ve never been my first priority. due to pressure, my first priority was always my education. however, i am working on taking care of myself and fixing my sleep schedule. i am also working on eating healthy. i always find myself lacking time due to my busy schedule. fixing a schedule helps me sort out my day and have things to do on an hourly basis. in this way, i find myself less distracted by my phone and i also work in a productive manner. i hope i can keep doing this and be mentally healthy.

Sometimes we think more about others than ourselves. Sometimes to help others we have to make sure we are able to help ourselves. What helped me was realizing that by taking care of myself I would be better equipped to help others!! For instance I cannot financially help someone unless I am financially stable. Its like reaching out to someone in the water and being properly anchored to rescue them. There are many analogies that could be used. The most common one that I think can apply right now is the one about cups. Until your cup is full you can not pour into another person cup. Thank you all sincerely Josh

Taking care of yourself is a part of your own personal relationship with yourself. The more you develop that relationship, the more you will have the need to take care of yourself. Also, there could be some self-sabotaging patterns in your mind if you have some un-processed emotions or trauma. Dealing with those is also a way to improve the whole picture of your relationship with yourself. Everyday try to make yourself do one caring thing for yourself. Try to remind yourself and you might, if persistent enough, create a good habit and it will be at least a little more natural.

Self-care often has the reputation of being relatively easy. I'm here to tell you that that is nothing but a stereotype! Many people struggle with activities of daily living but it is something that is not often talked about in society. It is okay that you have to push yourself sometimes to take care of yourself, especially when you have so much to deal with in your life already! Remember to be kind to yourself and your body. Someone else's standards should not be yours, we are all different and unique. Take self-care one step at a time, sometimes it can be rather overwhelming.

Often times, we have been trained to not take care of ourselves. Other things often come first such as school, family, friends, job, and other life responsibilities. We do whatever we can to survive and sometimes that undermines the very thing we need to survive which is our own health. Taking care of yourself is just like any new habit you are trying to form: it takes time, consistency and patience. Even knowing that you have to take care of yourself or wanting to take care of yourself is not enough. Start off small and then increase little by little. Do what makes YOU feel good and what works for you. Everyone'e self-care and self-love look very different.

We are our own worst critics. We tend to blame ourselves for everything, even things not under our control. (Such as our looks, or anxiety, depression etc) so we tend to neglect ourselves as if we don’t feel we deserve self care. Or, things like anxiety and depression make it very difficult to even complete basic every day tasks. And that’s okay, if all you’ve done is survive and exist today, you’re still doing great. Sometimes it helps to make a list of self care habits we want to complete every day. Seeing it in a list can make it easier for your mind to manage, and can even serve as a reminder for extremely forgetful people such as myself. Sometimes self care has to be learned, and that’s okay. We’re all different with all different needs.

Taking care of myself doesn't come naturally to me either because I've always had so much self hatred inside. Also, sometimes I feel guilty for spending time on myself when my family rely on me a lot for help. However, I realised that there's no point in taking care of others if I can't even take care of myself and now I've started making my own self care a priority. You can start small: at first the thoughts of exercising, and eating healthy, and taking out time just for me seemed quite daunting. But you should remember to start small, perhaps just a walk outside everyday. I started trying to take care of myself simply by listening to my favourite kind of music for 15 mins a day, and very slowly, I started incorporating daily showers and I tried to eat at least 2 fruit/ veg a day. It takes time. But once it becomes a habit and you get used to it, you'll start to love yourself for it.

I think its because you never learned. It could be that your parents did not take care of you very well for example. If people do not care for you well you have to learn how to care for yourself by your own strength and discovery. So give yourself grace for that learning process if it takes time. Maybe because you have never learned it your mind is saying that you are not worth it. I wish you the ability to discover that you are worth to take care of yourself! You deserve all the goodness and love. Through old conditioning we can actually learn certain beliefs about ourselves. But those beliefs we can let go of if we really want to!❣ When we believe a negative thought pattern it might feel like that is who we are forever. But I am convinced we have always the ability to let go of negative thought patterns! So we have the ability to change 🙏

Sometimes we get so caught up into taking care of others that it becomes natural for us to take care of others instead of ourself. It’s time to put yourself first and the same energy you give off to those you help, put it into yourself. It’s so easy get caught up into taking care of others because it’s easier to do at times but we have to learn how to manage both of them equally. Allow yourself to put yourself first at times. Allow yourself to understand that you need to take care of yourself to take care of others.

You might just not be used to it! I know personally starting to take care of myself was really hard for me to do because I had never done it before. I was so used to making myself available to others instead of letting myself be happy, that I didn't know where to start. Personally, after doing it for a while, it became habit to me and felt more and more natural as time went on. Try different self-care techniques, and remember that self care isn't always bubbles and glitter. It's tough and ugly sometimes and that's okay. I hope you feel better in the future.

Taking care of oneself doesn't come naturally to everyone. Taking care of oneself is a skill, and like any other skill, it generally takes some patience and practice to hone and develop. Taking care of oneself can also be a learned behavior, so if you didn't witness this behavior from the people in your life growing up, it may not be second nature for you to act in such a way, however, because it can be learned, you can still acquire the ability to take care of yourself later in life, if you are willing to do the work.

In my life experience, I've found that taking care of oneself requires energy. I've noted circumstances where, this energy was not always readily available depending on the mood and life events. Also, self care sometimes for people I've met has required resources, which are not always readily available to everyone. Then, I've noticed that self care is sometimes stigmatized. Outside the accessibility and societal means, I've observed that taking care of oneself can require memory or an establish habit to do so. I think of it as exercising in a sense where exercising could positively benefit a person, but it doesn't necessarily seemingly notably and strongly impact others. Exercising doesn't always come natural to everyone who may have to work it into their schedule. While these aren't a exhaustive list of reasons, theses are some of the major ones that I've observed. Best Wishes.

Taking care of yourself requires a lot of effort sometimes. You probably tend to always put others before yourself, and don't give yourself that care. Always start small, but here are some tips. Doing activity(s) that you enjoy everyday is a good way to show care to yourself. Don't forget what is important to you. Practicing good hygiene is important for mental and physical health. Spending time with loved ones is a good mood booster. I hope this helps you and you can take better care of yourself. You only have one life and one health. Eventually this will become a habit and come naturally to you. Best of luck!

Because of our emotions and the environment that you are in too . Because for me when I was in an intense situation and pressured environment i can't think straight and i can't feel straight everything becomes a chaos and i can not control anything like my chaotic feelings taking charge and i forget everything i learned about taking care about my self and how to support myself that's why taking care of myself cannot come naturally to me because the me that i feel and sense right now is not the me i sense in a stressful situation.

It might be because of the things you have been through. Sometimes in life we go through a lot that we become too tired to take care of ourselves. It may also have to do with your self esteem. remember we have to learn to be confident in our selves and to love our selves. If one finds it difficult to take care of themselves then that says a lot about how they feel about themselves. It is an indication that you may need to work more on self-love.

I believe this is because in society we are taught to look after others first and that thinking of ourselves is selfish. For instance, if someone goes to the mall by themselves to enjoy their own company others may view this person as lonely with no friends however we do not know if this is the case, the person may simply want to spend alone time. Therefore, self care is sort of unnatural as there are some negative beliefs and stigma around the idea of taking care of oneself. In my personal experience I feel selfish or lonely

You are correct that maintenance, hygiene and care behaviours are part of the innate human tendency towards self conservation. When something as basal as our physical care needs are disordered, we should best pay attention to this. Being unable to care for ourselves communicates that for one reason or another, we believe we are not worthy of living. Often it suggests poor self-esteem and a tendency towards self punishing behaviours, often also seen to coincide with disordered eating. Or it may suggest that we are overwhelmed by life which can prompt us to re-evaluate our responsibilities. On the other hand, many however feel overwhelmed despite undertaking a typical schedule: this indicates that we are diverting a great amount of energy mentally that should otherwise be ours to expend. This should prompt us to seek treatment with the aim of healing the discord that inhibits us.

I don't think it comes naturally to many people on Earth. Myself included. It requires effort to take care of oneself. Nothing is ever easy. Effort is one of the toughest things to battle as it comes from within. Our self-determination is what will allow us to take care of ourselves. We are not robots therefore we must take measures of our own free will to ensure we look after ourselves. On that basis, I think I am in the position to state that nobody takes care of themselves through natural means, e.g. they aren't born with a desire to immediately take care of themselves. Some people have died because of not taking care of themselves which proves that it doesn't come naturally to anyone in existence.

Taking care of yourself is a skill! Just like riding a bicycle or playing an instrument. It takes practice to take care of yourself: to get enough sleep, learn what to eat to fuel your body, and how to reach out and ask for help. Some days, just getting out of bed or taking a shower have been huge self-care wins for me! Remember: these skills don't happen overnight, and baby steps are the key to success. Congratulations for coming here to 7 Cups! It may not seem like it, but this is a huge win and we are proud of you!

I think taking care of oneself is something that doesn't come naturally to other people as well for a variety of reasons. It personally doesn't come naturally to me for reasons I don't exactly know but after doing some self reflection, I realized its because I just view it as so much of a hassle and constantly overestimate how difficult it will be. My favorite quote is : "If anything is worth doing, it's worth doing badly" meaning that brushing your teeth for 15 seconds is better than not doing it at all. This quote has helped immensely. Additionally, creating a routine and building in self care into a scheduled routine can be very effective as well. I hope this helps!

It depends on what you are referring to as self-care. self-care comes as eating well, drinking enough water, showering, getting outdoors ....etc. It can also mean seeing friends, meditating, deep breathing, reading a positive book. When we feel low in mood doing these things can be more difficult and at these times we should focus on the more "basic" ones like eating, drinking water and moving. Self-care is individual to everyone and it can be how to think about it too that is important. I bet if you think about it there are lots of things that you do that are considered self care!

The issue is that this type of self-care demands a significant amount of energy. This is a huge undertaking. It calls for a very particular procedure with a very clear outcome: create a serene atmosphere, descend into presence and reflection, and emerge refreshed and full of self-love. In many respects, we will never be free of this all-or-nothing mindset. As a result, it's tempting to believe that the polar opposite of selfless is selfish, that in order to care for others, we must compromise our own needs. We aren't seeing the big picture when self-care feels selfish. Taking care of our physical and mental health improves our ability to help others.

Sometime when you are growing up the grownups in your life didn’t teach you how to care for yourself well. That could be because they were not taught as well. And so on. Research and practice is a great way to be on the path to a better you. Google can come up with great articles on the matter. You can be better than what you grew up with. You just gotta put in the time and effort. Not all things good come easy and you gotta work for them. A listener can direct you to self help articles as well.

I can listen and talk to you about your issues but I don't know you well enough to say for sure why but this is a symptom of depression this is not me diagnosing you with this it is me stating that it is a symptom I think the best possible thing you can do is talk to someone such as a therapist which can give you a better answer than I can there are therapist on 7 cups or you can use resources on here to find a therapist close to you if you do not think that is is an option may talk to a friend or look at some coping strategies on 7 cups

For every child the way they perceive their surroundings differ. The environments could be same but due to differences in way of perceiving the personality differs from one individual to other. So these early impacts nurture the way we develop as individuals. So naturally some will be too self centered, some will be moderate some may lack self care. If you consider yourself as third category. Then it's better if you can take care of your mandatory things before life teaches you through harsh lessons. Coz self care is necessary for any humans. It could be drawing proper pyschological boundaries, not working too much, not neglecting the physical and mental burdens. It's a bit tricky. Coz usually people who lack self care when they hit by harsh scenarios they completely become too self centered. Which again is other end of the extremes. Rather balance things. You need not to be too self centered , you need not to be too self ignorant either. Any change requires consistent, commited daily work. Be patient enough to see results.

Sometimes its much easier to care for others than it is to care for yourself. For some learning to care for yourself dosent come naturally it takes time and practice but it can be learnt. It is so important for your health and wellbeing. Know that you are worth care too. Take breaks. Rest well. Do things that you like. Try relaxation. Calming sounds. Meditation. A face mask. Having your hair done. A makeup session. Anything to make you feel good. Anything that is just for you. Set aside some time for you for you time. It is neccessary .

I understand how it may be difficult to prioritize yourself over others in your life. Personally, I struggled with the same issue because I always wanted to put other people's needs before my own. I believe that for some people taking care of themselves comes more naturally because of how they were raised, and what kind of influences they were around during their development. Many people struggle with taking care of themselves, so you are not alone. Being aware of the issue is very strong of you to understand. Now hopefully you can try to start taking care of yourself more because of your awareness, and with time it may come more naturally to you.