In our ever-busy lives, we tend to put others and even tasks before ourselves. This results in depression, weariness, and fatigue. It drains our energy and our spirit. However, once you start choosing yourself, a magical change takes place.
We often wrongly think of taking ourselves into consideration as selfish, but those are two different things.
Taking care of yourself and your needs is not selfish, but rather extremely necessary. In this article, we hope to inspire you to start choosing you every single day of your life.
The Difference Between Choosing Yourself and Being Selfish
Choosing yourself on a daily basis is not selfish, but rather closer to self-care. By choosing to put yourself first when it’s necessary, you’re making the responsible and well-thought out choice to take care of yourself in a way that is necessary to ensure your health and positive quality of life.
Being selfish, on the other hand, is putting yourself before others on a regular basis because you see yourself as being more important. Selfishness is putting your own needs, wants, and beliefs over the needs, wants, beliefs, and sometimes even basic rights of others. See the stark difference?
Why Should You Start Choosing Yourself Every Day
Now that you understand that there’s nothing selfish about taking care of yourself, let’s get into why it is that you should start choosing yourself.
The biggest reason you should do this is because you are important and if you don’t start treating yourself that way, how can you expect anyone else to?
Beyond the basic need for you to take care of yourself and your health, choosing yourself every day can improve your mental health, improve your overall satisfaction with your life, and help you to seize opportunities.
It means saying no to things you don’t want to do or don’t feel right doing and saying yes to those challenges that might scare you but are good for you.
What Does Choosing Yourself Look Like
Choosing yourself involves making the conscious effort to examine your needs and, when reasonable, making the choice to put them before the wants of others. It’s similar to the idea of the oxygen masks on airplanes: you’re supposed to secure your own mask before you help a child with theirs.
The idea behind this is that if you’re incapacitated, the child wouldn’t be able to help you as much as you could help them if the reverse were true. The same concept is at play for choosing yourself: you can’t do your best and be your best if you don’t take care of yourself.
Choosing yourself takes self-reflection coupled with a diligent and dedicated effort to change the way you think and how you treat yourself.
It’s saying no to a situation, event, or activity that makes you feel uncomfortable. It’s realizing that you’re better off staying home and recharging your battery than going out one day.
Are You Ready to Start Choosing Yourself?
Making the effort to start choosing yourself is no easy feat. You have to be ready to commit to the challenge completely or not at all. It takes time to get adjusted to a new routine like this, but once you do, you’ll definitely start to see improvements in your overall happiness and physical and mental health.
It can help to reduce your stress and keep you from being overwhelmed, allowing you the time to recharge your battery instead of taking on every single task, project, or challenge that comes your way.
Make the decision to start choosing yourself every day, because if you don’t, who will?
