3 Things Women Shouldn’t Normalize

We often think of self-care in two ways.

1. That it’s something so glamorous that not everyone has access to.

2. We label certain behaviors as “self-care” only to escape our reality.

The reality is many of us are not fully experiencing forms of self-care that are transforming our lives or even providing a safe space to fully recharge. When we engage in certain activities that we call “self-care” we need to ask ourselves a few questions.

1. What is my intention in doing this?

2. Will this increase my capacity or leave me feeling more depleted?

3. What need is this supporting?

These are just some of the questions that can help you discover if what you are choosing to do will serve you. Now on the other side of that coin falls a place where you may feel that self-care is not for you because in order to qualify as self-care it requires too much time or money. Sometimes we may feel that we don’t deserve it.

But what if self-care is actually right at your fingertips, and doesn’t require much time or money? What I have realized after connecting with many women over the years, is that society has convinced us that all we have to do is “make it through the day”. If you have survived and pushed through then that is all you have to do. WOW!!! What a lie we have believed, and it’s not our fault. Cultural and society have set expectations that have been passed on without being questioned. We have normalized many things that are actual simple forms of self-care. So let’s go back to the basics, things we were designed to have and experience to thrive in life not just survive.

1. Sleep! Many women brush off the fact that they do not get enough sleep, and often we don’t realize why we aren’t sleeping in the first place. We have just come into agreement with the fact that we are not sleeping.

2. Emotional Expression. What? I know it sounds crazy, but we have normalized not fully expressing our emotions in a healthy way. Instead we tell ourselves “it’s fine” and find a way to escape or suppress our emotions. Which both lead to creating burden in the body and decreasing our energy.

3. Voicing your needs! Yes, I said it. Women get to voice what they need, it might feel like a foreign concept because we are usually the ones making sure others have their needs met. This one is simple but it may take time, especially because it will require looking inward and connecting with yourself to discern what your body, heart, mind, soul and spirit are telling you.

So if you are feeling empty, tired, depleted, this is your invitation to take some time each day and get to know yourself. Like actually get to know what you are made of, go ahead ask yourself these questions. You are worthy of all of this!