Self-Care is VITAL by Ruthann Ochoa

I guess I always wanted to write something like this, something from my heart and to share it to an
audience; for example, like you! It’s hard to love yourself; so hard. It’s so hard that, when you try, you get lost. It’s so hard that, when you try, you don’t end up just losing yourself but end up losing others in the process. It’s so hard, that we suffer the consequences of our own pain and problems and we forget that all this hurting is mainly caused by ourselves.

Something we can’t undo is the pain we don’t intend to inflict onto other people. Be it by the words we say or the actions we carry out. We can’t rewind time and undo the wrongdoings of our actions. We can’t take back the things we have done to hurt another person because what is done is done.
There’s no going back to the time to undo our what cannot be undone. What we can do is
come out of it as a better person, the best version of ourselves, and to learn from our mistakes. The
first lady, Michelle Obama proudly stated, “We need a better job of putting ourselves higher on our ‘to-do’ list.”

As I thought about this statement, not only did it make me think, “Wow! That’s so true!” it made me think, “What does it truly mean to put yourself higher on your to-do list?” As life progresses, time seems almost like a stranger to us. It goes so fast we don’t recognise what’s
going on in the world around us. Everything gradually becomes a whirlwind and we find it hard to
catch up, affecting our daily lives and the mindset we slowly fall into. So much goes on in our lives
that we tend to get lost sometimes. We tend to forget about ourselves and focus more on others- in
positive and negative ways. Now tell me, when was the last time you looked in the mirror and felt
confident instead of insecure? When was the last time you took a selfie but ended up taking around
100 because you weren’t satisfied with the first result? When was the last time you felt happy to be
you?

They aren’t easy questions to answer… I find it hard to answer them too. In this world, there are so many reasons why someone is ashamed to be themselves. It can go from not being content with a
grade from a test, to deleting a snapchat video of you because you thought you looked disgusting.

It’s so easy to say, ‘Love Yourself, you have a purpose!’ and not mean it. But let me reassure you
(and not in a cliche way): God has a plan for you. Whether you’re Christian or not, there is a goal
ahead of you to strive for. There is a road for you to follow and you may not know the route - but isn’t that the point? Love is not love without learning from experiences, such as pain. Life has its
obstacles. It’s inevitable that life is coupled with its challenges that we may not wish to face. In way
way or another, in order for us to emerge the other side of that obstacle, we need to be able to have
the motivation, determination and resilience to get to the other side. This journey of life teaches us so
much about ourselves; how brave we are, our weaknesses and strengths. It teaches us that there will
be people who come and go, people who you may not get along with and the people who will make
you feel worthy. At the end of the day, you are you. It will always and forever just be you. So stick
with you, look after yourself and be proud. Stand in front of that mirror and say, I love you, me.
It sounds silly, but you want to hear it from someone, and that someone has to be you first. As
Michelle Obama says,
“So, try and accept yourself, because it’s all part of love. You are You. And You are enough.”

- Ruthann :)