Why is self-care so hard?

From our Ayruveda and Yoga Specialist, Stephanie K, this really hits home.

It is much easier to help others than yourself. It can be hard to put into practice the things you know about healing and being well. But as a healer or highly sensitive person, it becomes more important than ever to do just that, both in order to help others to your fullest ability and to function to your best ability in a world that inspires a lot of sensory input.

Today I read an article about healing anxiety and depression from an Ayurvedic perspective, not only was it enlightening to me as a practitioner, but also on a personal level. As we grow up we learn to protect ourselves from hurt, but in the process, our mind can take over and slowly cut us off from our inner selves. Once this has happened, the mind works hard to mask that we have lost this access, drawing us further and further into the external world.

“The mind does a great job at maintaining this ironclad protective shield, building and adjusting a personality to serve as a cover. This personality becomes our show to the world, a projected illusion we create to protect the delicate feelings of the heart. Safely hidden within, we respond not to our own true nature but to the needs and whims of mom and dad, siblings, employers, and friends. Soon we spend most of our time disconnected from our own happiness and juggling responsibilities to make everyone else happy and okay with us. We become prisoners, sentenced to illusion and guarded by fear. We become actors playing in a bad movie, required to stay to the lines of the script.”(http://kripalu.org/article/355/)

This really resonated with me, as I’m sure it will with many others. How can we like ourselves if we have no idea what or who we are in there? How can we care for ourselves when our focus is on everyone else? Our jobs as adults is to reconnect with ourselves, grow self awareness to change our overly protective patterns into healthier ones. Yogic and Ayurvedic philosophy and practices both have much to say and offer about how to achieve this. With these tools at the ready, the only obstacles to healing are our fears.

— SK