"Don't be a bitch," society whispers in your ear.
We've been made to believe that caring for ourselves makes us all bitches.
I've come to realize that if caring for myself makes me a bitch, then so be it. I choose to be selfish to help myself. I choose to say no to offers and invites when I know that I need a mental break. All of that is OK!
We need to be selfish in this life.
It is so easy to get caught up in the constant flow of things and forget about yourself. It's not so easy to get back on track and care for your physical and mental health.
We all need to learn to smile when we receive those nasty insults like "bitch", "selfish" and "rude". We need to realize that we are none of those things, and people around us only think those harsh words because they don't know what it's like to put other people before themselves.
We are the people in this life who have grown up putting everyone around us ahead of ourselves. We are the people who are genuinely sad when something happens to a friend, even when we can't control it. We are the people who need to learn to be selfish and to not feel bad for it.
I am selfish on purpose. I will always be present for my friends and help them out whenever I can, but I refuse to apologize when I have to put my needs before theirs. I can't feel bad when I don't have advice for them because the truth is that I need advice myself.
My mental and physical health is my number one priority, and saying "no" to things to make sure that my health is at its peak performance is a must. If I were to give in and not be so "selfish", only I would feel the disadvantage.
The people around us cannot and will not feel what we feel, and that's why our actions come across as rude to them.
Yesterday, I was selfish. Today, I am selfish. I will probably be selfish tomorrow. I refuse to be shamed for caring about my own wellbeing.
In the end, self care is not rude, bitchy or selfish. Toxic people will label it as so, and to those people all you have to say is,
"Today I'm choosing to be selfish."
