Feeling Stressed? Five Reasons to Make Self-Care a Priority

So this October edition of Better Than Ever was going to be an article about snacking …  

Instead, with everything going on in the world over the past few months, I felt like it was a good  time to write about mental health and why it’s so important to take care of yourself.

And I’m not alone in this: There are people of all ages and backgrounds embracing the self-care “trend” over the past year. All you have to do is look on social media: At the time of this article, #SelfCare had been used more than 3.2 million times on Instagram.

Self-care care has never been more important than now. For the first time since the test was created in 2007, Americans broke the Psychologists’ Stress Record in a January 2017 survey. The devastating events in the world means there’s no shortage of reminders of things to be stressed about with stories everyday online about the most stressful places to live or work.

With stress everywhere we turn, self-care is the most fundamental way to cope. First, you must silence that nagging little five-letter word: guilt.

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READ MORE > ARE YOU AN ATHLETE?

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Last month, I went to a half-day yoga retreat in Philly led by a friend of a friend. The instructor, Helanah, wore a shirt that read “Self-Care is Not Selfish, It’s Sacred.”