“I’m competent in so many areas of my life. Why am I so bad at taking care of myself?”
If you’ve ever spoken these words, you’re in the right place:
for those of us who struggle with grit, willpower and motivation.
Many health and fitness gurus claim self-care is easy.
But when we dig deeper into their story, we find they’ve never struggled with motivation. Their self-care advice goes like this: “If you were motivated like me, you’d be more motivated.”
But the point is, we aren’t like them.
Particularly when it comes to diet, exercise and making time for sleep.
This is self-care for the rest of us.
This model starts with who we are, not the person we wish we were.
Why is self-care so hard?
There is a huge mismatch between what our bodies need and how we live.
Our bodies need movement, but we sit all day.
Our bodies need real food, but junk food is everywhere.
Our bodies need sleep, but we just keep looking at our phones.
This is the mismatch.
What we do doesn’t match what we need.
Which forces us to continually rely on willpower to maintain our wellness.
Our ancestors had to be active to stay alive
—it wasn’t a choice.
Our ancestors had to eat whole food because there was no junk food
—it wasn’t a choice
Our ancestors had to go to bed at night because there were no light bulbs
—it wasn’t a choice
Our ancestors didn’t use willpower to be active, eat real food and get enough sleep. It was ingrained in their everyday existence.
Self-care is a made up idea.
If you’d talked to someone 200 years ago about their self-care routine, they literally wouldn’t know what you were talking about.
And that’s why it is so hard.
Self-care is a made up thing we do to stay well, but it isn’t natural or normal human behavior.
