Self-care & Self-love: Expectations VS Reality

Something I have been wanting to cover is the idea of self-care & self-love. As much as we all love to enjoy and mostly talk about the romanticized surface of self-care/self-love that the media likes to portray, I truly believe that the core and reality of self-care/self-love has been disguised behind bubble baths and facials🧖🏼‍♀️

Even though each person’s idea of self-care and love can be completely different, I believe most of us can agree that it is based on deep and fundamental values for self-development. The part of self-care that is the most crucial and that isn’t talked about enough is the fact that it can be a hard and frustrating process both physically and mentally exhausting. Part of taking care of yourself means being pushed out of your comfort zone and forced to confront things about yourself and your lifestyle that need to be taken care of. It is about creating boundaries, accepting painful healing, dealing with pain and grief, practicing detachment from anything or anyone that no longer deserves to be in your life, being patient, staying consistent, eliminating certain behaviors, processing your thoughts, and the list goes on... 💌

Sure, it’s nice to get temporary satisfaction as an act and expression of self-care, but let’s not forget it’s most importantly about skipping instant gratification in order to work towards long-term fulfillment. It is about making conscious daily decisions and regular changes to get closer to the person you want to become ✨

Feel free to check out the full illustration and different color variations of this design on my Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMzWMv-h5wA/