I had the great fortune on Friday to talk about self-care on a panel for AAUW’s National Conference for College Women Student Leaders.
Here are a few of the topics we explored:
-Self-care isn’t necessarily fun or pretty. It might mean having a difficult conversation with your spouse, or disappointing a friend. Ultimately, it’s about guarding your own health and energy so that you can do the important work you need to do.
-Self-care never ends. It’s a lifelong practice. Even when you’ve gotten to a good place, you can be knocked out of it—as happened to me recently when I got sick and lost my exercise routine. The answer is simple if not easy: Begin again. And again. And again.
-We have to practice self-care even when–especially when—it feels hard or selfish. Those are the times we most need it. It’s not easy to take a moment to collect ourselves in the middle of a crisis. And there are certainly a lot of crises that are important, sometimes devastating. But if we don’t care for ourselves first, we’ll never have the energy we need to face the crises, certainly not over the long-term.
My co-panelists were the incredible Gloria Collier and Cheyenne MDee. Gloria is a hotline counselor who posts about mental health–both how to support others and how to take care of yourself. Cheyenne heads up a nonprofit organization focused on women’s empowerment, called Freedom the Cowgirl Way. She’s a bit more active on Instagram, where you can find her @by_cowgirlway.
I’m also so grateful to Stephanie Baker who moderated our panel and to Tiffany Sanchez, EdD who recommended me for it. They are both incredible leaders in higher education.
I was also so delighted to run into Amanda L. Paul, LCSW, who does counseling, speaking, and coaching on mental health and equity.
If you’re not already following these amazing women, go do so!
A Recent Conversation on Self-Care
