Healing, Glowing, and Growing – One Act of Self-Care At a Time

There’s this idea that choosing yourself always has to look big, brave, or transformative.

But right now, choosing myself looks a lot smaller than that — and honestly, that’s okay.

This season of my life has been heavy. The kind of heavy that settles in your bones. I’m juggling trauma, financial stress, and the pressure of holding myself together when everything feels like it’s pulling apart. And in the middle of all of this, I’m learning that choosing myself doesn’t always mean making huge life changes.

Sometimes it just means doing the tiny things that keep me afloat.

Choosing myself lately has looked like…

1. Making a tiny self-care checklist for the day

Not a big routine. Not a transformation plan.

Just a small checklist like:

• drink some water
• eat something healthy
• open the blinds
• write in my journal
• breathe intentionally

Some days I only check off one thing.
But it reminds me that showing up for myself doesn’t have to be perfect — it just needs to be practiced.

2. Taking a bubble bath even when I feel “too overwhelmed” to deserve rest

This is the one I almost feel guilty admitting.

Bubble baths get framed as cliché self-care — something cute and Instagrammable.

But for me?

It’s one of the few places where my nervous system actually unclenches. Where I can breathe without my chest hurting. Mixed with some epsom salt, it is also one of only a few things that help minimize my physical pain.

It’s warmth, silence, and a moment where my body remembers it’s safe.

3. Lighting a Wax warmer to make my space feel softer

It sounds small, but sometimes it’s the only thing that shifts the energy in the room.

Choosing myself has meant creating tiny pockets of comfort in the middle of internal chaos.

4. Putting on a calming playlist instead of sitting in the noise of my own thoughts

There are days where silence feels loud.

Soft music has become one of my safe places, especially Canon in D by Brooklyn Duo. Something about the combination of the piano and the cello combined is incredibly soothing.

Music gives me something steady to hold onto and can help my body soften and breathe again.

Choosing myself sometimes looks like turning on a playlist before the spiraling starts.

5. Making something warm to drink, even if I’m not hungry

Tea, or even boiled water with lemon and rosemary — it doesn’t matter.

The ritual of holding and slowly sipping something warm grounds me.

It gives me a second to pause.

And yes… choosing myself has also meant making hard decisions

Some choices haven’t been soft or comforting.

Like deciding there won’t be a Christmas this year.

Like pulling back from things I can’t mentally or financially sustain.

Like saying “I don’t have the capacity for that,” even when I feel guilty.

But mixing the hard decisions with the gentle ones has taught me something I didn’t expect:

Both kinds of choices matter.

The small self-care things don’t erase the difficult realities — but they help me survive them. They remind me I’m still here, still trying, still deserving of softness even in the middle of a hard season.

Choosing myself isn’t always beautiful. But it is necessary.

Some days it looks like canceling plans.

Some days it looks like crying in the shower.

Some days it looks like a bubble bath and a playlist.

Some days it looks like checking one single thing off a list.

All of it counts.

Choosing yourself isn’t about being perfect.

It’s about acknowledging where you are and still giving yourself something to hold onto — something gentle, something grounding, something that says:

I matter. Even today. Even like this.

If you’re in a season like mine — where everything feels messy and overwhelming — I hope you find tiny ways to choose yourself too.

Not the big, picture-perfect, cinematic ones.

Just the ones that help you breathe.

You deserve that kind of care.

And it’s enough.

You are enough.

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You can explore the tools I have created for my own personal healing journey here:

👉 YouTube Music Selection: https://music.youtube.com/search?q=canon+in+d+brooklyn+duo

👉 Stan Store: https://stan.store/Shroompy

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