This is going to be an odd one, but please bear with me.
Inspiration strikes us at the strangest of times. For me, that's when I'm drifting off to sleep, emotionally unwell, or more often than not, in the shower. I think a lot of you would agree that the shower is one of the most relaxing menial tasks. The infinite struggle of "I don't want to shower" and then "I don't want to get out of the shower" is ever-present, and the feeling of having to commit to an involved routine is sometimes daunting.
If you, like myself, are of the female persuasion, that could mean any number of things and any number of types of showers. There's the "I just have to get clean" shower, where you essentially scald yourself in the hot water and soap trying to clean everything while shampoo sits in your hair and half rinsing while conditioning said hair, then drying in 30 seconds and struggling to put jeans on over wet legs. This is not my favorite of showers, but it's more often than not the kind that I end up taking. "Just get it done" is a common mantra for me, as I am often behind on other things, and have other chores or things to attend to. There's the "weekend shower", or as I like to call it, the "I have time" shower. This one is nice. You can take your time, enjoy the warm water, shave, deep condition, exfoliate, and use that special body wash that you love so much but don't have time to use during the week. Then there's the "pampering" shower. If you girls out there are like me, you have certain treatments you like to give your face, hair, and skin now and again to make you feel special and pampered. Let's face it, life is stressful, so taking some time for yourself is always lovely and it makes you feel so relaxed and happy. The issue is some of these things take a good amount of time, and we often can't be bothered or simply aren't able to do them. This mentality got me thinking.
Even when we're rushed, tight for time, stressed or anxious, even doing something as simple, overlooked or inconvenient like shaving our legs is a form of showing ourselves some love. It's something we do to take care of our bodies, present them the way we choose, and give ourselves a sense, albeit small sometimes, of accomplishment. Those of you that suffer from anxiety and depression as I do and have done understand that sometimes just getting out of bed is difficult and facing your day seems impossible. Despite this, somehow we find the energy to get up, exfoliate, scrub, and shave to care for ourselves. We brush our teeth and hair, some of us apply makeup, we get dressed, we face the world. We put our best foot forward - sometimes that foot is a little more forward and sometimes it's a little more reserved, but it's the best foot we have at the time, and we're bravely setting it out into the world without fear.
I suppose my point to this whole post about showers is that despite how we may feel, or the day we may have had or the troubles we face, we still bring ourselves to love ourselves first, we may just not realize it. So love yourself a little more, be brave, and take it easy out there. The world's a pretty scary place.
