What does it take to take care of yourself? What does it take to say no to the things that don’t align with your values?
My initial answer is a job. An income. But that doesn’t make much sense at all. It doesn’t take having a job to say no to things that don’t suit you. On the contrary, having a job requires you to know how to say no for your own sustainability.
It does take money to feed, clothe, and house yourself. I’m not saying you don’t need money for basic needs. I’m saying you should take care of yourself whether you have the money or not. Walk, read books, make friends with yourself, write, these things are all accessible with or without a job.
Point is that finally having an income isn’t going to instantly make you take care of yourself. If anything. it will exasperate the problem. Separate the idea of taking care of yourself from having an income. They are both important but the job relies on you taking care of yourself. It shouldn’t be the other way around.
Jayne.press 
Agreed! I personally toyed with self care in various ways, starting as basic as making my bed to showing up for myself at difficult times. Surely they make up important instances of self care. But the best self care I’ve done and settled on, is accepting my thoughts and feelings. Basically radical self-acceptance. And that made everything else, every other self care project, a bit easier for me to do, because it shifted my mindset from that of an authoritative type of self care (felt as do/don’t) to a more gentle and compassionate one (felt more as let’s/what if/how about.)
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That is such a great addition to this post. Thank you for reminding me about the gentleness needed to fully embrace those moments. That makes me kind of emotional. I’m glad you decided to take your journey and I’m glad our paths have crossed.
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Thank you! 🙏
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