“Women hold up half the sky” is often identified as an ancient Chinese proverb recognizing the importance of empowering women. We at LIVING SELF-CARE realize that women often hold up more than half of their section of sky, especially in the daily running of households and families. The result is that many women are constantly running on empty.
While self-care is invaluable for wellness, the activities that we suggest may be insufficient to counterbalance the influence of biological and social stresses in women’s lives.
If you KNOW what you need to do to take care of yourself emotionally, physically, socially, and spiritually, but you just can’t make it happen, you might be experiencing clinical depression or anxiety. Depression and anxiety are more frequent in women than men, due to a multitude of factors, including hormonal influences and socialization that cause women to put themselves last in their own lives. While the tips on this site can be helpful, as many as 20% of women may experience clinical conditions that require intervention beyond self-care.
If you find that you have been taking care of yourself, and your bad days still outnumber your good days, (or if you haven’t been able to motivate yourself to do any self-care) we urge you to seek out more information and/or professional mental health assistance.
These links to screening tools and organizations can connect you with resources to find help. Please take this most important step if you have thoughts of hurting yourself or others. Also, if your feelings interfere with your ability to live your daily life (reduced functionality), you may need some professional assistance. If you are having trouble sleeping or are sleeping too much (or gaining/losing weight without trying), please call a support person ASAP and a professional very soon! If you are a support person and suspect that your wife/partner has lost touch with reality, please call 9-1-1 NOW. This is an emergency situation!
Postpartum Support International
American Psychological Association
Psychology Today (Find a Therapist)
Blogs by Moms in the Know:
Postpartum Progress by Katherine Stone
Beyond Postpartum by Amber Koter-Puline
My Postpartum Voice by Lauren Hale
Ivy’s PPD Blog by Ivy Shih Leung
Support for Bedrest Mamas:
Pregnancy/Birth Information:
Breastfeeding Resources:
Doula Organizations:
Living Self-Care 
Great site! I work for Healthy Families in Indiana and plan to give this website to all my moms.
Great site! I specialize in helping women heal from perinatal mood disorders, and will be sharing this with them as a great resource. I love the idea of the self-care challenge. Thank you for putting this together!
Hi Colby. Thanks for your endorsement! For the November contest/challenge we’re putting together a list of resources/supporters for moms and women to help encourage self-care. If you or other subscribers are interested, please leave a comment to let me know. Lauren Hale @unxpctdblessings will be assisting me again.
have been enjoying linking to your site from my blog. thanks for your voice. keep on.
Thanks for linking from your site to ours. I didn’t realize we’re promoting the same message until I looked at your blog today. Would you like to do a guest post in February when we’re talking about heart-healthy relationships, like being a friend to yourself. Let me know.
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