Care
Self-love without a sales pitch
Not a command to feel beautiful. A rite of basic loyalty to the person you are stuck being.
Forced affirmations make some people feel worse, especially if the sentence is a lie. This rite does not require you to call yourself radiant. It requires one act of loyalty.
Timing. When you notice you are punishing yourself for existing.
Materials
- A towel or clean shirt.
- Water and food you will actually consume.
- Any one object that is kind: lotion if your skin tolerates it, a blanket, a song.
- Paper.
- A clock.
Steps
- 1Eat or drink something reasonable if you have been withholding food as a moral position.
- 2Wash your face or hands without commentary.
- 3Write one sentence that is true and not cruel: “I am tired,” “I did the work,” “I am lonely and still here.”
- 4Set a timer for twenty minutes of a pleasure that does not humiliate you afterward.
- 5Speak the words.
- 6When the timer ends, stop while the kindness is still intact.
- 7Put the cruel tab, if one is open, away for the night.
I will not make a spectacle of hating myself. I will do the next kind thing as if I were someone I had promised to walk home.
Close. The paper can go in the journal. If the sentence is too tender to keep where others will find it, shred it after reading.
The practical action, which is not optional if you want the rite to be honest. Keep one appointment that cares for the body: food, medication you are prescribed, sleep, or a message to a friend that says a true small thing.