We’ve finally (as a culture) gotten to the point that a mental health day isn’t seen as "cheating". We’ve – mostly – realized that taking time for ourselves is not avoiding responsibilities, but is a needed part of self maintenance.
But that’s all our current understanding of taking time for ourselves is at – taking "a day". Releasing a little bit of the pressure, but that’s all. It’s still a focus on only alleviating the immediate problem so we get back to "functional".
We don’t think about doing the maintenance (or fixing the problem) past the point that it’s no longer a crisis.
It’s the equivalent of using duct tape to pull up a car door that droops down. Sure, if you get the duct tape on there just right, the door closes fine. Until the duct tape wears down and then you have to do it all over again.
And that’s how we treat taking time for ourselves.
We do not allow ourselves the time and space to do more than take a mental health day, and that begrudgingly. But that’s like just applying more and more duct tape to the door – eventually, you end up spending a lot more time and energy doing quick fixes instead of actually dealing with the situation.
It’s "boots theory", just in terms of mental health.
And the way to change that mentality is from the ground up.
Starting with those immediately around us.
Including ourselves.
Featured Photo by Emma Simpson on Unsplash