Self-Care Isn’t Selfish (It’s How We Keep Going)

Week 17, 2025

A gentle reminder to pause, breathe, and nurture your inner peace 🌸

ℱ𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈... 🫶💌☕

This week, I’ve been sitting with something that keeps resurfacing, not only in my own life, but in quiet moments with others who are holding more than they show.

It’s this:

• Rest isn’t something we should have to earn.

• And real self-care (gentle, replenishing, and consistent), isn’t a luxury.

• It’s necessary.

It’s the quiet lifeline that helps us keep going, especially when our nervous systems feel tender or overstretched.

If you’ve felt on edge, disconnected, or simply worn down, I want to gently remind you:

• There’s nothing wrong with you.

• Those signals are real.

• They’re your body’s way of asking for care.

I’m not talking about picture-perfect self-care with candles and bath bombs. I’m talking about the kind that whispers…

You’re allowed to stop.

You’re allowed to need.

Let’s tend to what’s hurting.

It’s completely okay if self-care feels unfamiliar or even hard.

Many of us weren’t taught how to listen to our needs.

Especially if life has required us to be strong, to push through, or to stay in survival mode.

It makes sense if rest feels foreign or uncomfortable.

What would it feel like to prioritise your wellbeing?

Not as another task on your list,

but as a quiet commitment to your future self?

You’re not broken.

You adapted.

And now, you’re learning something new.

When we start to meet ourselves with tenderness, even in the smallest ways, we build resilience… not as armour, but as softness we can return to. We begin to refill what’s been quietly depleting.

This doesn’t have to be grand.

It can be gentle, ordinary, and still deeply powerful.

As I reflect on my word-of-the-year intention after the first quarter, self-care (for me), might look like:

• Saying no without guilt

• Letting yourself rest before you’re exhausted

• Taking slow, quiet moments simply to be

• Offering yourself compassion instead of pressure

• Listening when your body asks for ease

If you’re arriving at the end of this week feeling tired, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

It means you’ve been doing a lot, and now it’s time to receive, too.

The need for rest and replenishment isn’t selfish.

It’s sacred.

So far this year, I’ve reinforced that resting, reflecting, and softening are not signs of weakness… they’re signs of self-awareness.

Listening inward takes strength.

Slowing down can be a radical act of healing.

Imagine your inner world as a quiet room with soft light.

You’ve just walked in, closed the door behind you, and exhaled.

Nothing is expected of you here.

This space is only for you.

Can you feel even a flicker of relief in letting go, just for a moment?

I wrote another small poem for you this week; just a few lines to honour the truth that you matter, even when the world feels heavy. Sometimes, poetry can hold things we don’t quite have words for in everyday conversation. I hope this brings a moment of gentleness to your nervous system.

You Deserve to Be Held

Even when your hands are full,
and your shoulders ache from holding it all…

you still deserve
a moment to breathe,
a pause to soften,
a place to fall gently into yourself.

Not because you’ve done enough,
but because you are enough.
Always were.
Always will be.

— written with care, for you

You don’t need to fix everything all at once.

Returning to yourself in even the smallest, quietest ways creates meaningful change.

Every time you choose care (gently and intentionally), you begin to shift your inner story from survival to safety.

Your wellbeing is worth protecting.

Not just for what you do,

but for who you are.

𝒲𝒾𝓉𝒽 𝒢𝓇𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓉𝓊𝒹𝑒,

🙏 𝒟𝒶𝓃𝒶 𝓍𝑜