Bubble guts is an example of our mind, body, and soul talking to one another. Our spirit senses something isn’t right, our mind is shooting out unhappy emotions, and our body is reacting as the stress hormones course through it. Incidents like this are signals that something is out of order within you and that one of your needs must be addressed to maintain your health. To do this, maintaining balance within your three spheres of wellness is very important. You must use one of your acquired wellness tools. But real talk, that can be hard to do. Life happens. You get so distracted by the flow of your life that you forget to take care of yourself. Therefore, finding a practice of self-care that works for you is essential to the upkeep of your overall health. In addition, pursuing a life filled with self-care improves wellness and prevents illness and disease. The act of self-care has become critical to surviving in the modern world, especially as a Black woman. It helps you create a safe space for yourself in a society that does not care to make room for you. You help your future self and encourage personal growth when you engage in it. For you, self-care is a necessity and not a luxury. Grab a notebook and do the following: Begin with evaluating where these emotions are coming from. Take some time to think and ask yourself: Where did I learn that I should put the needs of others before mine? Why do I think I must justify my requirement of self-care? Next, apologize to yourself for the times you pushed yourself beyond your limits and ignored your need for self-love. Follow up with forgiving the origin of the guilt. It is most likely a woman caregiver (maybe a mom or grandma) who didn’t provide you with a good example of what caring for yourself should look like. She did the best she could with the amount of awareness she had of herself. Most importantly, commit to not judging yourself if feelings of guilt arise as you practice self-care. Ultimately, the more you work on not feeling guilty about taking care of yourself, the closer you get to experiencing the freedom you deserve. Excerpted from Self-Care for Black Women by Oludara Adeeyo. Copyright © 2022 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. Used with permission of the publisher, Adams Media, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. All rights reserved.
