Day 9
You Deserve Good Things
Take care of yourself.
Taking care of your physical health is one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your healing journey. Eating nutritious food, getting regular exercise, getting plenty of sleep, and avoiding drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine are important parts of maintaining your physical health. Caring for your physical health helps you recover from the damage caused by trauma.
Sometimes trauma survivors avoid self-care because they want to avoid having any attention on themselves, or they don’t think they deserve to do good things for themselves. It is important to remember that self-care is essential to healing, that you are worthy of all good things, and that nurturing yourself is good. Allow yourself all of your feelings: Allow yourself to cry, allow yourself to rage, and allow yourself to feel good and to begin to remember how to feel joy, happiness, and contentment.
Some people find kickboxing empowering and energizing, while others find it too reminiscent of actual fighting. Some people like baths, while others find baths too vulnerable. Find the thing that works for you. Find something that you enjoy, so that you want to keep doing it. Don’t force yourself to do something uncomfortable, and don’t exhaust yourself doing something difficult or unpleasant. Self-care should be conducive to healing. Whatever you do for self-care, it should make you feel good.