Recently I have been pondering the terms, ‘Self-care’ and ‘Self-caring.’ Do you think they are the same terms? Me too, or, at least, I used to. I was surprised to discover a notable difference between these two terms. Let’s try and understand that today.
What is Self-Care?
When thinking about Self-Care, I realized that it meant any care I give myself to promote my health and well-being. What are the things I do to make sure I am healthy and well? These would be things like proper hygiene, eating well, exercising to remain strong, wearing a coat and using gloves in the cold weather, getting a good night’s sleep, and so on. So self-care in this sense means doing the simple things I do every day to take care of myself.
How about self-caring? Let’s find out if we can determine some differences between the two.
What is Self-Caring?
When thinking about Self-Caring, I realized that it’s a practice that I must develop. Self-caring goes beyond merely making sure I am healthy and well. Self-caring means always treating myself with the love, respect, compassion, and kindness that I would show a dear friend, family member, loved one, or child. It’s ongoing and continuous. It’s my moment by moment. It is befriending myself. It is becoming my own best friend.
Befriending our bodies IS possible because anything is possible with Lipedema!
Self-Care and Self-Caring
There’s a significant difference in the meanings of these two terms and sometimes, it can be confusing. There may be times when we would use the two interchangeably. One thing’s for sure, though, is that we need to do both in order to live a good life. While there are differences between self-care and self-caring, we must strive to do both things in order to live well.
In other words, we must take care of ourselves (self-care) and befriend ourselves (self-caring). The two should go together because taking care of yourself also means treating yourself the way you would treat a dear friend or a family member. We deserve to be taken care of by ourselves – our best friend.
Now that we know the difference between self-care and self-caring, it’s time to ask yourself this question: What are the things that you do in order to take care of and befriend yourself?
Think about it properly. Listing your answers down may help you determine some areas where you can improve on your self-care and self-caring ways. I hope that you are doing the best you can to perform self-care and self-caring acts.