Episode 104: Self-Loyalty Starts With Better Self-Care

Recently my husband had an extended hospital stay.  The number one question I received from my well-meaning friends and family was: How are you going to take care of yourself while he is in the hospital?  “The best I can,” I told them. But this just did not satisfy their curiosity.  They wanted to hear about all the bubble baths, yoga, and meditation I had planned for this stressful time. But I knew better. There wasn’t a bubble bath in the world that was going to make this easier.  My husband was in the hospital. It was going to be stressful. I didn’t know what to expect. The self-help industry’s’ idea of self-care wasn’t going to be any help.  I was simply going to do the best I can. All this month we are looking at how the self-help industry has sold us a bunch of toxic information. And for those of us with High Functioning Anxiety who love looking outside of ourselves for the answers, this toxicity is especially troubling. In today’s episode, I take a closer look at self-care and how it isn’t just yoga, bubble baths and breathing apps. Self-care done well is the ultimate in self-loyalty.   Listen to the full episode to find out: How the idea of self-care has gotten out of control What I believe the 3 main issues of self-care are for people with HFA How we associate busyness and stress with prestige and status How we have made self-care synonymous with self-indulgence How we wrongly believe that we are undeserving of self-care How we can go about building self-loyalty And what we can do to define self-care for ourselves Some of the research and resources mentioned in this episode: The Journal of Consumer Research on busyness and lack of leisure as a status symbol My books on living with High Functioning Anxiety And how you can work with me one-on-one  The solutions the personal growth industry sells leave women living with hidden anxiety--women like you--with more stuff to be anxious about. Even worse, it can turn you off from getting help completely. I want to help you dial back the overwhelm and overthinking with a set of tools designed just for people like you. It’s not woo-woo. It’s not trying to positively think your challenges away. And I’m certainly not going to tell you to start living your best life. Visit: https://NancyJaneSmith.comLearn More About Self Loyalty School: https://selfloyaltyschool.com