Self-Neglect Anonymous
Hi, my name is Pamela… I’m a self-neglecter… Thinking about my mental-struggles over self-care today, I thought “I need a self-care buddy.” Forget a walking buddy or a diet buddy, I need someone to go to the core with me and tell me when I’m rationalizing away my own right to thrive. Then I started imagining a 12-step-like group for women like me who find it so hard to make taking care of ourselves a priority. What would our steps be? Maybe these nine…
- We admitted that we have been powerless over our desire to take care of others—that our well-being and happiness have suffered.
- Yet, we came to realize that only we have the power to take care of ourselves.
- We made a decision to come together in support of each other in this goal.
- We made a searching and fearless inventory of our negative self-talk and self-neglect behaviors.
- We admitted to ourselves and to each other our complicity in perpetuating our self-neglect behaviors as well as those of other women in our lives.
- We have forgiven ourselves and each other.
- We are entirely ready to work together to change our thought and behavior patterns.
- We seek to create space in our lives for our self-care.
- Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we try to carry this message to all women, and to practice self-care in our daily lives.
Well, count me in!
Those steps were off the top of my head today… partially inspired by your recent posts 🙂 Sadly, it’s a group that could include nearly all the women that I know!