Do you want to know the difference between self-care and self-indulgence? Absolutely yes, I want to know the difference between them.
We’ve all heard “self-care,” but do we know what it means? People often mix up self-care with self-indulgence.
But don’t worry, as you keep reading; This blog post will help you understand the difference between the two and what it means to take care of yourself.
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Now let’s get started.
What Is The Difference Between Self-Care And Self-Indulgence
Many parents frequently ask me what self-care entails, especially given the conflicting messages on social media.
Self-care consists of enjoyable activities (such as spending time with a close friend) and challenging activities (such as setting limits in a complicated relationship).
However, there is a distinction between nutritious self-care and self-indulgence or “unhealthy” habits regarding enjoyable self-care.
1. A glass of wine after the kids have gone to bed is an example of self-care vs self-indulgence in motherhood, as opposed to binge drinking regularly.
On social media, mother wine culture jokes center on the premise that raising children is so stressful that it’s “wine o’clock” after they go to bed.
This can harm parents because it normalizes maladaptive coping mechanisms to deal with the natural stress of motherhood.
2. Another famous example is watching TV after the kids have gone to bed instead of staying up until 2 a.m. to finish the entire season.
Sleep is one of the pillars of our physical and mental well-being, and while staying up late daily binge-watching shows may be entertaining in the short term, your future exhausted self will not appreciate you.
Parents may binge or restrict their food intake to relieve stress rather than eating tasty and balanced meals and snacks.
Finally, in our consumer-driven world, buying oneself a nice-smelling lotion vs buying everything at Sephora from your phone is an example of self-care versus self-indulgence.
What Does Indulge In Self-Care Mean
When you participate in activities that promote self-care, you make positive changes to your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. To thrive is to make room for indulgence in your life.
You practice self-care when you intentionally engage in activities that contribute to maintaining your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Even though it is a fundamental principle, it is usually disregarded.
Improving one’s mood and alleviating stress need a minimum level of self-care. It is about replenishing your energy reserves so that you can keep pursuing the activities that you are most enthusiastic about. It’s the kind of activity you should make time for regularly.
It is critical to your capacity for development to have a healthy sense of self-esteem and self-confidence, both of which may be improved by realizing that you deserve receiving care.
This is an essential component of self-care. Keeping a healthy work-life balance enables you to establish boundaries around aspects of your life that are sources of stress and, as a result, reduce the amount of work you get done.
Life is about more than just surviving; it’s about genuinely living, and to do that, you have to make intentional decisions about the direction your life will go daily.
The most crucial advantage of practicing self-care is improving one’s general health.
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Is Self-Care Synonymous With Self-Indulgence Or Being Selfish
No is the short and straightforward response. On the other hand, taking care of oneself is not a frivolous or self-indulgent activity, as many people believe it to be; instead, it is an essential component of a person’s health and happiness.
Self-care has as its primary objective the avoidance or management of sickness and the maintenance of general well-being. This is accomplished by the routine maintenance of many aspects of an individual’s health.
The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that self-care is a wide concept and that it encompasses many aspects of an individual’s life, including the following:
• Hygiene in general as well as on a personal level
• Food and drink
• Aspects of one’s way of life, such as their activity level and their leisure pursuits
• A person’s living situation and their social behaviors, which are both products of their environment
• A person’s socioeconomic circumstances, such as their amount of wealth or their cultural views
• the practice of self-medication and adherence to treatment programs for existing conditions
A person must make responsible use of their personal responsibility and self-reliance in a manner that has a beneficial influence on their health both in the here and now and in the future for them to be considered to be practicing authentic self-care.
What Are Examples Of Self-Indulgence
I have included a list of some common instances of self-indulgence below, which include the following:
· Lazily going around several social network platforms.
· Self-medication, excessive consumption of food or drink, etc.
· Watching hours upon hours of stupid television.
· overcommitting yourself in terms of both time and effort
· Staying up too late and then pushing the snooze button when you get up.
Taking an active role in enhancing and guarding one’s well-being and pleasure is essential to self-care.
This entails engaging in some activity or activities that are unpleasant. Things that are more difficult to do now but will be of more use to you in the future.
The following are some examples of self-care practices that are common and beneficial:
· Going to bed at a reasonable hour and getting enough sleep
· Listening to a podcast that is encouraging.
· Stretching or working out regularly
· establishing positive boundaries and learning to say “no.”
· Reading books on self-improvement and personal growth
· Maintaining a regular schedule of date nights with your partner.
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Is Self-Indulgence, Not Self-Care
The short explanation is that self-care is proactive, whereas self-indulgence is reactive.
Self-care is defined as engaging in activities that promote our long-term well-being. It entails making responsible decisions with clear goals. For example, you may leave a party early to guarantee adequate sleep.
Self-indulgence is defined as indulging in temporarily pleasurable actions with negative consequences—for instance, staying late at a party and becoming weary and angry the next day.
Proper self-care necessitates being proactive to generate significant mental and physical benefits. This includes mundane tasks like going for a morning exercise and generating a budget worksheet. It boils down to taking active control of our health and obligations.
Self-care becomes indulgent when we participate in things that distract us from our difficulties.
These passive #treat yourself actions must be avoided before they develop into maladaptive coping mechanisms. For example, if you’re stressed, you could buy an additional can of beer or impulse buy.
What Makes A Person Self-Indulgent
People considered greedy or just generally selfish are typically seen to be indulging in self-indulgence, which is often regarded as a negative trait.
Some people believe that self-indulgent people have a preoccupation with themselves that manifests in excessive eating, concern for their welfare, and excessive quantities of pleasant things like heaps of cream cakes.
On the other hand, indulging one’s desires occasionally results in positive outcomes. Take, for instance, the situation of a person working long and demanding shifts at their firm during the day and then coming home to their family to spend the evenings constructing a new home for themselves and their family.
After all this hard work, it is only natural that you would be psychologically and physically exhausted by the time it is through.
You will need to come up with an alternative regimen to increase your good energy. How? It relies on your tendencies, personality, and how you live.
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Final Thought
Now that we have established the difference between self-care and self-indulgence, As a certified professional counsellor, I frequently saw the negative impacts of excessive self-indulgence and insufficient self-care in my clients who were burnt-out, pressured, overwhelmed, and even displaying indications of melancholy and anxiety.
To avoid this, begin by reflecting on the previous week. What did you do with your free time? Were you exhausted at the end of the week? Were you energized? What kind of self-care did you practice?
What did you get up to? Answer honestly, identify places where you can replace self-indulgence with excellent self-care, and establish a plan to implement it this week. Self-care is not a luxury; it is a need.