The Art of Taking Care of Yourself

By Demitri DeLuca-Lyons
October 25, 2023

That headline sounds familiar doesn’t it? Maybe someone you’ve had a conversation with told you to take care of yourself before leaving. But what does it mean exactly? What does it mean to take care of yourself?

That might sound pretty obvious and self-explanatory and an awful lot of questions to throw at you at once, because it is, but self-explanatory it is not. There are plenty of people who have no idea what it means or how they should react. My goal is that by the end of this article you’ll understand and maybe even take steps to improve; to take care of yourself.

Understanding you.

“Who are you?” Knowing who you currently are externally might be completely different from who you are internally. Alternatively, maybe you don’t even know how to address yourself or who you are. That’s fine, because who we are changes all of the time. You are capable of change any time you notice these small or large changes. If you know who you are now or not, it doesn't matter, because at some point you’ll figure it out, but there’s a difference between knowing and understanding.

Your “knowing” can be different from “understanding”. Understanding who you are is reading the roots of your person; the core of your being. Only you know this, and I can’t help you much. I can help you establish something else however: Value.

Everything you do has value attached to it, the clothes you wear, the way you interact with others, the way they perceive you, all of it is value. Let’s set a basic ground rule: You are no more nor less than the sum of yourself. There’s little difference between how you interpret yourself and how others interpret you. You are the only person who can understand you, therefore, you are your own arbiter. What you recognize as you is you. But the interpretation of others is also you.

Your World

Told ya!

Your world is constantly changing, but let’s back up a bit. “What are you talking about ‘my world? You have an inner world just as much as the person next to you does, better illustrated as your mind and your interpretation of self. This is where you dream, you think, you exist. No one else exists here, anyone you decide to bring inside is your interpretation of that person, not who they are. It’s freedom. Everything is by your will. You can implement restrictions, like ground and sky, and those restrictions will limit your freedom, but they give you security. This sounds convenient and really nice, right? Yes, but you shouldn’t stay here.

A world with nothing but yourself becomes dull, uninteresting. You have nothing to interact with, no one to speak and perceive, you begin to feel like you’re slowly fading out of existence. Without other people, you can’t truly recognize your own image. Though you exist independently, you observe others to find and recognize your own image, they guide you to build the image that makes you who you are. Your self image is restrained by the perception of others, but you can’t see yourself existing without the presence of others. In a world with only yourself there may as well be no difference between you and nothing.

The perceptions of others make the shape of yourself and the image associated.

Taking care of yourself.

So, what does this all mean?

That’s for you to decide. But now that you know, I can get to the point: Taking care of yourself.
Hopefully through my long-winded psychological analysis you’ve grown to understand just who you are and how you work a little better. Taking care of yourself is relegated to a passing phrase said in a casual sense now-a-days, and that’s a little upsetting, but understandable.

To take care of yourself, you need to respect yourself.