Caring for Self

What It Means to Care for Oneself Mentally?

Caring for Yourself Mentally – Part 1

Let’s talk about what it means to care for oneself. What does it mean to have self-care or what does it mean to care for oneself mentally? What are you doing to make sure you are healthy? Don’t confuse this or assume we are speaking of your physical health. Rather, how are you caring for yourself mentally? Are you giving your mental health any attention? 

 Many times, it is easier for us to care for others than it is for ourselves. We can offer suggestions and advice to others on what they should do, but for some strange reason we don’t offer that advice to ourselves. When it comes to our own self-care we tend to go lacking. With that said, let’s begin to start thinking about what mental self-care would look like for us. Do you have a strategy or plan of action? Take a moment, sit down, and pretend to assess yourself in the same way you would assess someone else. If you noticed that your friend was suffering mentally with stress, depression, anxiety, etc., what would you offer them? Now offer a preventative strategy for yourself.  

Self-care is about being our best for others.
In order to get the most out of our own self-care, we must be selfish. We must consider what we need to be for others. How can we make our life of value and worthwhile for others? 

 When you first hear the words self-care, it elicits selfish connotations as I mentioned above. Self-care, me taking care of me. That sounds a little selfish. The truth of the matter is self-care is all about how you will care for and better care for others. The goal is to make yourself healthy and be at your best not for you but for the benefit of others. That person next to you, the people in your world, are not only counting on you, but like having you around.

 You see, whether you realize it or not, you are a gift to someone around you. In fact, God thought enough of someone else to give them the gift of you.
There’s a lady that I know from my hometown. I thought she would never amount to very much. In fact, she had a stint with substance abuse and the list goes on and on. After her passing, I discovered something quite interesting. She had in her later years become a caregiver for the children of a younger less experienced relative. In other words, she became a nanny and was quite good at it. She had become a gift, God’s gift to those children. While we might discount someone, God had counted them. What if this person had taken better mental care of herself? It is possible that she could have served those children not only longer, but that much better. 

Mental Fitness Compounds
Here’s what must happen. You must learn to care for yourself, not for the sake of you, but for the sake of another.

When we think of self-care in the mental fitness space, most of our attention leans toward the major challenges that we hear of and wish to avoid, like depression, anxiety, memory loss and so forth. But there are minor things that contribute to the major problems. If we get a handle on the minor, we can offset the major. 

You know this or at least have heard of how compounding interest works. It is about time. When you allow time to pass, the value of the investment grows or gains. Your life is the same way. Every contribution or investment that you make towards your mental health, it compounds. 

 Allow me to restate that. The improvements you make in your life compound in the same way as the neglect of your mental health care will compound into the larger challenges one sees in later years. If you give no attention to your mental health, that is going to compound and present itself in major ways in your future. If you intentionally improve your mental health, it lessens that ability for the negative efforts to compound. 

 Remember this. Whatever you sow, you will reap. ^[1] Think of it in terms or the practices of a farmer who plants seeds in the ground. Whatever you plant today, is something that you are going to harvest tomorrow. This is a law. It’s not a suggestion. It is a law. The earth works by this law. Life works by this law. Your health is subject to this law.

 Whatever you sow, whatever you plant, is what you reap tomorrow. Whatever you are reaping today, whatever you are harvesting today, whatever you are experiencing today, the consequences you receive today are a result of the things you planted and actions you took yesterday. 

To change your mental state, to where you want to be, to where you want to go, to how you want to feel, you must be willing to change what you are sowing. That’s the purpose for caring for oneself.

1. Self-care makes you aware that you need to care for yourself.
2. Self-care gives you the ability to have longevity and plant the right seeds for your future.
3. All of it, your self-care is done for you to impact the people that you love around you. 

 Question: what are you doing to care for yourself which ultimately is caring for the people you love most?

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[1] Genesis 8:22 NKJV ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬, Bible.com, accessed October 10, 2023, https://www.bible.com/bible/114/GEN.8.22.NKJV

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.

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