There was a period last year when everything seemed to go wrong at once. I was dealing with a family health crisis, work stress was at an all-time high, and I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water. During this time, I made the mistake of treating self-care as the first thing to go when things got tough.

For most of my adult life, I thought saying yes to everything was synonymous with being a good person. Friend needs help moving? Yes. Colleague wants you to cover their shift? Yes. Family member wants you to drive two hours for a last-minute dinner? Yes, of course.

When people talk about physical self-care, I used to immediately think of intense workout routines or complicated meal prep. As someone who's never been naturally athletic and has a complicated relationship with food, this always made me feel like I was failing before I even started.

I've always been that person who checks her phone before even getting out of bed. Social media notifications, news updates, work emails – it felt like staying connected was staying relevant.

Last Tuesday, I found myself in the middle of a particularly chaotic day. My to-do list was longer than my arm, emails were piling up, and I had three meetings back-to-back. But instead of powering through like I usually do, I did something radical – I drew myself a bath at 2 PM and spent an hour just... breathing.

Last Tuesday, I worked a 12-hour day, got home at 9 PM, and faced the same question that haunts every exhausted person: "What am I going to eat?" My old self would have ordered takeout, felt guilty about it, and spent the next morning bloated and tired.

Ưhen someone mentions self-care, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Probably expensive spa treatments, elaborate skincare routines, or someone floating in a bathtub surrounded by rose petals. And while there's absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying those things, self-care is so much more than Instagram-worthy moments.

We all know that feeling when our brain seems to have a mind of its own. You're trying to fall asleep, but suddenly you're mentally reviewing every awkward thing you said in 2019, or planning every possible scenario for tomorrow's meeting. That's anxiety doing its thing