Her Needs Were Never Supposed to Be an Afterthought - Fact 24

THE WOMAN PROJECT — Woman Fact 24

It is a known fact that women always put's there personal needs aside for every Dick Tom and Harry. Why do we do this. It is our intrinsic reaction to act to do before anyone even asks. Slowly the real person begins to fade and nothing but a shadow of her former self remains. Stop, pause for just a minute and look in the mirror. You deserve self care above all else, how can we be a caregiver when we cannot self care. My challenge for every women today, is to look in the mirror and see for yourself.

Ipsos found 80% of women know self-care matters. Almost none of them actually practice it the way they practice caring for everyone else.

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Psychologist Carol Gilligan spent her career studying something researchers before her had overlooked: many women develop what she called an "ethic of care," a deep, genuine belief that tending to others' needs is a moral good, sometimes placed even above their own. That instinct is beautiful. It's also, research shows, exactly where the trap quietly lives.

An Ipsos survey found 80% of women recognize the value of self-nurture, yet consistently fail to extend themselves the same care they give everyone else, women without children were found to be ten times more likely to actually practice self-care than women with them. Psychologists call this "contingent self-worth," value that depends on being needed, being useful, being helpful, rather than existing simply because she does.

Here's what deserves saying plainly: her capacity to care for others was never the problem. It's a genuine gift. But a gift that only ever points outward eventually runs dry. Her own needs were never optional extras to get to later. They were always supposed to be on the list too.

THINK IT

When did you last do something purely for yourself, with no one else benefiting from it? What stopped you from doing it sooner?