Welcome to the House of Heavy-Duty Self-Care
Have you nailed these three pillars of self-care?
My sister is a part-time shopaholic, part-time fashionista, and a full-time surgeon. She’s in the penultimate year of her residency, which means it’s her 600th year in medicine. And since she works in a public hospital, that means she practically lives there, rarely goes anywhere, and barely has time to do anything else.
Well, except check out, and then check out from all those online stores.
My sister’s self-care drug? Shopping.
The thing is, I’m generally wary of considering shopping — or purchasing things in the name of self-care — as real self-care. And yet, as I look at her, slightly envious of that new off-shoulder floral top, I see why shopping is key to her self-care – that it’s not merely about the temporary thrill of new clothes (I’ll expound on this later).
We’ve all heard the famous battle cry: “Treat yo self!”
Back then, on a good day, I’d “treat myself” for a job well done. On a bad day, well, the more it felt necessary: “Let me just buy this cute dress because I’m having such a shitty time/drowning in work/surrounded by toxic people/being mistreated/feeling stuck, overwhelmed, and unhappy with where I am.”
