By Kyran Crist / Online editor

Self-care is becoming a more common topic, something the pandemic has brought us because, one, we are all trying to stay healthy to make sure we don’t catch and spread the virus. Two, we are in a rocky and unsettling time that has everyone on the brink.

But even though it’s making the rise it needed to, I still feel like it isn’t given the thought it should.

It isn’t just saying “treat yo self” when you are deciding whether or not to eat out or blow big bucks on something extravagant. 

Self-care is also remembering to drink water, to fuel your body like it needs to be fueled, recharging all your empty batteries, recognizing those batteries and why they’re drained.

We are all basically houseplants with more complicated emotions. The basic needs some days are all we need. But in the rush of the day, week, month, time slips by and you can’t remember the last time you felt recharged. It happens and that’s OK, but when you know and feel just drained, there is no shame in saying “I need some me time.”

I think for so long society has had an “everyone else first and your needs last” kind of mindset, which yes you should always be kind and there for others, but not to the point where it’s detrimental to yourself, and it’s not selfish to say such.

Mental, physical, emotional health. These are things that matter and should be prioritized just as much as anything on your daily agenda. You are worth it. You are more than worth it. Drink your water, eat a whole cake, spend a night baking to whatever playlist, buy a butt-ton of bath bombs, grab a friend and drive around screaming your lungs out to whatever gets your head banging, buy that thing that makes you happy, read that book, don’t read that book, sleep in, ask for a hug, ask for space, go to a party, don’t go to that party.

People may get mad you don’t want to go do things, offended that you don’t want to spend all your time doing things they want you to do but you know what. Let them. Flash a smile and walk away.

It’s 2021. Self-care is not something we should still feel like we need to put on the shelf until we get to it after it’s collected cobwebs and we only remember because someone points it out.

Just do what you got to do to be you boo, the healthy you.

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