Don’t Let Self Care Be About Short Term Relief

One aspect of self-care that’s often forgotten is how to solve long term problems. When people try to engage in self-care, the focus is usually on one or two things that they think will help them feel a little better in that moment.
 
They don’t appropriately plan for anything else going in the future. This can lead to ineffectiveness over time, because you’re still burdened with the same issues, despite the short term self care efforts.
 
When people think they’re engaging in self-care, it tends to be pretty surface-level stuff that doesn’t help a whole lot in the long run. It’ll be something like taking a long bath with some relaxing music or eating a healthy meal that day.
 
While these things will help, they’re very short term options. They’re great to do on a weekly basis to help decompress or let go of some stress, but if it’s just something that is done every now and then, it hardly helps at all.
 
Consistency is the key to long term self-care. Even if they are little things like relaxing baths, as long as it is done on a consistent basis, long term results are likely.
 
This is what sets your self-care routine apart from the ones that just give you some temporary relief. As long as you can keep up with your routine and don’t stop doing it, you’ll be able to better work out your problems.
 
Another important thing to remember is that while doing the simple, small things is a good start, it’s not enough to sustain you for a long period of time. Pair these types of activities with something more serious in order to improve in more areas with more efficiency over a period of time.
 
The main thing to take away is that you can’t expect to solve deep-rooted issues in your life with something that simple. It would be nice if that were the case, but unfortunately a lot more effort is required to properly rid yourself of not only one or two problems you’re facing, but a multitude of life issues.
 
Short term measures like that will only scratch the surface of your problems, addressing your symptoms but not the actual issue itself, leaving you vulnerable to being affected by it again and again. If you want to properly stop that cycle, you’ll need to dig a lot deeper.