Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 4 Issue- 10, 1 April 2020 | Page 31

Are You Neglecting Self-Care? Here are 17 Signs
Pay attention to the following red flags. If you are neglecting self-care, you will
experience:
• Constant tiredness and fatigue
• Irritability (little things annoy you)
• Poor sleep quality
• Muscle tension
• Chronic illnesses (e.g. colds, flu, infections)
• Anxiety and worry
• Paranoia
• Neglecting family or friend time
• Obsessive rumination (mind won’t shut off)
• Constant low-grade depression
• More dread than excitement
• Disconnection from your body
• No time to do what makes you happy
• All work and no play
• Feeling of emptiness
• Negative and self-sabotaging thoughts
• Low self worth and insecurity
I’m sure there are many signs I’ve missed. But I hope I’ve given you a good
picture.
Why Are We Resistant to Self-Care?
You’ve probably heard it before. “I’m too busy to do that,” “I have too much on
my plate right now,” “I’m inundated with work,” etc. I’ve been guilty of using
these banal excuses more than once, let me assure you!
One major reason why we overlook self-care is that we have our priorities
wrong. We weren’t taught how important and essential taking care of
ourselves is as children. Therefore, as adults we have no concept of self-
nurturing – that’s until we fall chronically ill, develop a mental illness or go
through a traumatic life experience. Because we are unaware of the
importance of self-care, we place other things like work commitments above
our health, because that’s all we know.
Self-care, to many people, is also unfortunately associated with selfishness.
There is an old and outdated perception that taking care of your needs first
equals being self-centered. However, if we closely examine this belief, we can
see how ridiculous and short-sighted it is. How are we able to take care of
others if we cannot take care of ourselves? How is it possible to let others
“drink from your cup” so to speak, if you have no water inside of it to give in