Self care is non-negotiable! Do you agree with this statement?

Hai Sreekala, nice to see you here after a gap of time. Yes, many working ladies are not taking self-care due to non-availability of time. They look after the needs of each and every one in the family except their own needs and necessities. Even I am not an exception. Half of the days I missed my breakfast. Breakfast is the main course of food for anyone. The stomach will be empty for such a long time and we have to eat good breakfast. But I used to drink two cups of coffee in the morning with one hour gap, feed children, make their lunch boxes, serve food to in-laws, make lunch, coffee dicoction etc. ready for them and run to the bus stop. This accumulated starving had a telling effect on my health in the later years. I suffered from acidity, irregular digestion, BP, Sugar and my stamina has vanished long back. At this senior citizen stage, I feel old age has set in 10 years earlier. How I should be after ten years, I am facing that deteriorating health condition now itself. My health negligence has added 10 years more to my correct age. Please ladies, no one will accept your theories at that time. They say you are lazy. For your own sake, please take care of yourself. Yes, I agree that SELF-CARE IS NON-NEGOTIABLE.

HI Sree! It is very important that one should devote some time for self care. It is for sure the woman of the house, take care of others, her children, her hubby and may be her in-laws and in the process forgets to look after her. I think one should not ignore one's health and even if other might think it otherwise, one must pamper herself and take adequate care about one's health. It is said - 'Health is wealth". So you must take care of yourself and should try your best to squeeze some time for yourself and skipping meals, without any reason could be troublesome. If you do not have enough energy, it would be difficult to perform your job and to look after your family. Hope the article would work as an eye opener for you and you would start looking after yourself, from now onwards, if you were not doing it earlier.

Hi Shree! Actually this is a sore point at home for everyone against me.I take very good care of my fmaily and I also feel that I do take care of myself.But they keep saying that I do not take as much care of myself as I profess because I am the person w ho has plenty of health problems.THese are systemic problems and are chronic and I am also middleaged and am likely to face menopause problems.THey just cannot understand it. i do take reasonable care of myself but I tend to worry and get totally upset if soemthing goes mildly wrong with others in my family .

Sree beti Seems this discussion is aimed at women only, but i would like to put my opinion, yes most women neglet taking care of themselves while taking full care of other members of the family, for them all family members are equal.. So it is the man who must take care of the wife who cares for him so much.. Thank you so much for sharing. Professor ‘Bhuwan’. . God bless you. Welcome always.

It is absolutely vital that you take care of yourself. No one else is going to do it. Sleep, the right foods, exercise, companionship are all needed to maintain your health. Some people may feel that they are selfless and I don't disagree with their feelings but the truth of the matter is if you collapse or are frequently ill, you're not any good to anyone else or yourself. Everyone wants to be a productive memeber of society and give their best. The greatest way to achieve this is to take care of yourself.

I take care of myself and family members too, we are mothers and wives, we have to take care of self, hubby, kids, grandkids to the best possible extent, that is what duty of a woman.. happy mylotting, cheers kalyni

Hi Sree, it's true that most of the marriage women taking less care about themselves. I could see this obviously from many of my colleagues as well as friends and neighbors. This happens mostly to working women who have to take care of their young kids or elders or both. I realize that many of them aware clearly that self care is essential but due to lack of time. It seems that women are great and always consider that kids and husband are they everything. This is the main reason why they would neglect of self care unconsciously. For the sake of having a happy and fortunate family a housewife always puts her family as the primary place. They are more than willing to sacrifice their every minute and effort for taking good care of the health and blessedness of the family members It's rather sad that there are cases that women who never draw out time to take appropriate care of their appearance as well as their health might encounter undesirable consequence finally. Therefore it's nice for us, women to take the required amount of healthy and nutritive foods, to have regular physical exercise, to have proper rest to maintain our health and strengthen our immune system don't forget to take care of our appearance as well. I believe our loved one doesn't like to have a dear one with sloppy and indecent appearance or sickly look. I believe our kids as well as our parent like to have a loving healthy and decent mom or daughter. Take care and happy posting

Honestly I do not care for myself. I only care when I am not feeling well, that is only the time I will say to myself that I have to exercise, drink vitamins and have enough rest. I do have rest, not enough I should say, but the problem with me is that I forget to drink vitamins or supplements and do exercise. Our body needs exercise so that no future illment will goes our way when we get old. I am a hardworking lady and I do that for my family. I buy my parents medicine, I advice them to drink on time, I advice them to take care of themselves when I am at work, but who will take care of me, of course me alone, however I do forget it. I don't have time. Sometimes when i am not feeling well, I still take a bath and drink paracetamol just to think it will ease the pain but then the real thing that I need is enough rest and I ignore it sometimes. Your discussion is a wake up call for me.

We must take extra care of our health before it's too late. Yes many of us are too busy and putting off things about own health. We do sacrifice to care for our family but gives ourselves the last priority. We should take care of ourselves too. This starts with proper diet, daily exercise and regular visits to our doctors and even dentist. We only have one life to live and if we don't live healthy this life will be shortened. If so, then who would take care of our children?

Hi Sreekala, I too agree with you that we need to take good care of ourselves and our close ones ...It is only fair that each one takes care of oneself so that they are not a burden on others and are able to look after and take care of others .I try my best to stay healthy by eating regular meals and also doing some exercise etc; all the best Sreekala

Hi Sreekala, Hope all is well. Well, I believe self care is equally important when it comes to health and happiness. Self Care is about giving yourself the gift of wellness which is very important. In this life we only have one body, and how we treat this temple reflects on our overall happiness. What do you think? I take care a proper care of myself, respect and do all that required for a healthy body. With our busy lives, we sometimes forget to prioritize self care. However, taking care of yourself and pampering yourself on a regular basis is very essential. Having a well-cared-for body can make you feel good about yourself and your life, and conveys to others that you value yourself. This can contribute to long-term feelings of wellbeing. Thanks.

My motto in fact is "Love yourself and help save planet earth" It is only when we love and care for ourselves that this world would be a better place. In the process of caring for ourselves there are so many things that we look into including a good environment around us.

I know we love to help. It makes us feel good. Taking care of others is one way of helping that does convey an easier thought of having helped which ultimately makes us feeling good than have we taken care of ourselves. I think it is high time that we realize that taking care of others should begin with taking care of ourselves. And taking care of ourselves is just as good as taking care of others too. Self care or self hygiene is not only for woman. It is for everyone, man and woman. I agree it may strengthen one's immune system and keeps one protected from many harmful diseases. Thus, self care or self hygiene is non-negotiable.

It should be non-negotiable. But I dont take care of myself like I should.

sreekala hi I am not too good at taking care of me as I am so aware of my roommate and her new troubles. she is losing her memory and I have so worried about her as she forgets she has eaten and asks me when do we eat, and I have to say Kathy we just had breakfast an hour ago. my point is I had already talked to our nurse downstairs. She told me to quit worrying about Kathy and take care of myself. I am a diabetic and sometimes if I get stressed or worried my blood glucose goes way up even though I have not ate too much at all. But its hard not to care for the person who is your roommate. I was always taught to help people and care about them now I am told to take care of myself instead.It seems so selfish to just hone in on myself like that.I am retired and a widow with a n adult son so who else do I have to take care of but me now. but yet how can I turn my back on my roommate just to pamper myself. It feels wrong and selfish. but yet I am having problems with my diabetes so guess its time I do pay attention to me. I need to get more exercize and eat less and get my diabetes under control.I do feel stressed as I am warring within as to how much should I do for my roommate and still keep myself healthy and stress free.

Taking care of myself, is something I wanted to do, but sometimes I do not have the time to take care of themselves. Sometimes I want to be a routine use scrubs, facial care, and other treatments. But I always just ignore it all. I am busy with my work as a housewife, and I am always tired and lazy to do the maintenance. When tired of all the work I choose to sleep.

hisreekala, what they said about the immune system of one who 'balance care-giving with self-care are healthier and have stronger immune system than women who don’t take care of themselves' seems correct. And this a fact too most Indian women are like what you have stated. they have little time for themselves and if we compare men and women, men have more time and space to take Self Care and they are following as well. I agree that not only in case of woman it applies on men too that they take self care and this is really non negotiable one. If you come down for negotiations you are gone. Hope now on you would spare some time for yourself. Good luck.

Yup! You are so right, that self care is totally essential in one's life. It doesn't mean to be selfish or self centered but just to love yourself. Who will love you better than you, yourself?