Article reflection: “Own Self-Care: It’s Simple — And Essential”

“Own Self-Care: It’s Simple — And Essential” by Joanne Heyman 

What hooked me to this article in the first place was its initial message and title: “Own Self-Care: It’s simple — and essential”. The original article was written by Joanne Heyman, and she goes onto talking about how most of us forget to care for ourselves; we forget to care for our self-mind. We might remember to take our daily showers and brush our teeth twice a day, but when do we remember to think about what makes us happy? What makes us to be “honest and authentic”?

Joanne focuses a bit on work environment and the “real world”; she tries to point out that even the wealthiest former first lady of the United States, Eleanor Roosevelt (1600) knew the importance of self-care: “Practicing self-care is especially important for those in leadership positions” (talking about her husband at the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt). With her years of being recognisable, Eleanor recognised that with an important role such as being the president of the United States, comes with this constant being under extreme stress and pressure. People with vital positions care for others before themselves; they forget about their self “needs, desires, fears, and dreams”.

To reflect, I am not the president of the United States nor am I close to such an occupation, but I am a person who thinks about what makes my amount of stress decrease and self-care increase; I think things over and always tell myself  “it is only the beginning Silvia, you still have a whole life ahead of you”. Though being in grade 12, I am still in the midst of learning this “tuning in, tuning out” and being honest with myself and those around me, but people forget it takes time and much effort to achieve this part in life we call a “state of calmness”.

Finally, this article showed a great and realistic message to the people who took the time to read it: “you can establish healthy boundaries and create a sense of balance, even in the face of a challenging work environment”. Remember folks, stress is the only killer you can essentially restrain, in time.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/joanne-heyman/own-self-care-its-simplean_b_5229107.html