Self care is giving the world the best of you instead of what’s left of you.

– Katie Reed

I love how Katie Reed frames self care. For those of us focused on making the world a better place, a world that works for everyone, self care can feel like an indulgence. Being able to include ourselves in the care that we give to the world allows us to give more than we otherwise could, more joyfully.

How we give care makes a difference. Care might be given with a strong whiff of obligation. Who wants to feel like someone’s obligation? Or to have invisible strings tugging on us from gifts given with some expectation for return—especially when the expected thing is something that we don’t want to give? Who wants to feel that what we are receiving is draining the one giving?

If we who want to make a difference in the world can include ourselves in the care that we give, the care itself comes from the overflow of our energy. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be times that we will be asked to step up and give beyond our current capacity or that our giving won’t also take something from us. But when we have made it through such situations, we serve the world as much as ourselves by taking the time and energy needed to renew, to come back to a place of gratitude—that we were able to make a difference.