The difference

Recently I read a thing on the Internet (as one does) about the difference between self-soothing and self-care.  What our culture tries to sell us as self-care is often self-soothing:  fancy drinks, hot baths, retail therapy.  Self-care is often a lot more about doing the not-always-pleasant-but-useful stuff that our future selves thank us for.

Working out is one of those things.

 

While I certainly try to make workouts fun, that is not really the point.  The point is that we work out because it makes other things more fun.  It is much more fun to be able to breathe easily at the top of the stairs, to catch that excitable toddler or puppy on the playground, to spend time anywhere besides the hospital.  We work out so that we can garden and travel and go to our cousin’s quinceañera and eat cake at our own 100^th birthday party.

 

Helping ourselves be healthy humans is self-care.  If necessary, we can bribe ourselves to do it with a self-soothing hot bath at the end.