Self care seems to be all the rage these days, with so many people talking about it and posting about it. So, why am I? Am I simply jumping on the bandwagon?

Well, maybe. But I wouldn’t be if I didn’t think that self care is vitally important, and that it is something that needs to be discussed.

So, why do I think self care is important?

Well, for a number of reasons: practical, personal and - believe it or not - Biblical. Let’s take a look at these, huh?

Practical

It is, quite frankly, impractical for people to not look after themselves. Not looking after ourselves, especially in a society that tends to measure our value by our productivity, is a surefire path to burn out.

And burn out sucks!

Still, we generally aren’t taught how to effectively look after ourselves, or even why it’s important. And I want to start doing something to change that.

I want to challenge people to thing about how they can be looking after themselves and to begin practicing regular self care.

Personal

On a personal level, I have a good deal of experience dealing with burn out, mental health issues, chronic illness and a long - and ongoing - struggle to learn how to look after myself.

Now, after probably 10 years of struggling with depression and anxiety, and three years with chronic fatigue, and maybe two years of actively learning how to look after myself, I’ve realised just how important self care is. And how dangerous it is to ignore it.

And the better I get at self care, the more I realise just how bad other people are at it. And it frightens me.

A lack of self care probably won’t result in chronic fatigue syndrome, but it can definitely contribute o teh development of anxiety and depression.And I don’t want that for anyone.

Hence how important this blog is to me.

Biblical

This portion is more directed at my Christian readers, although I hope that my readers who do not believe in the Christian God will also read it.

I think that we, as Christians, are particularly bad at self care, and I think it comes from the notion that to be a Christian we must be serving. And serving often means doing, and putting other people’s needs before our own, all the time.

And I have come to believe that this is an incredibly unhealthy and unbiblical attitude. This post is not the place to go into it, but there will be future posts expanding on this and looking at what I think the Bible, and thereby God, has to say about self care.

I hope that in so doing, I can help challenge my Christian brothers and sisters to think about their attitudes towards ministry and self care, and help demonstrate that God is not the hard taskmaster He may often appear to people.

Until next time!