8. Take a long, soothing bubble bath until you can stop thinking why it is you have never read an article about “taking care of yourself” for men.
7. Eat something fresh and healthy. Wonder what happened to your sense of ambition. Did the world do this to you? Or did you do this to yourself?
6. Take a long walk with a good friend, knowing that no one will have done the dishes by the time you get home, no matter how far you walk. You could walk for a thousand years and they’d still be there, waiting for you. It’s such a little thing and yet – and yet it enrages you.
5. Take a nap. There will never be enough time. For what, you ask yourself idly before you drift into sleep. For anything. For everything.
4. Find a form of exercise you enjoy, whether it be dancing, yoga, or weight-lifting. Someone will always want something from you. You will always be seen as an inexhaustible source of support, never a human being with needs and frailty. Those who love you best will wound you most.
3. Try establishing a beauty routine. Doing something small for yourself every day will keep you from asking when it will finally be your turn to put yourself first. Don’t ask.
2. Try a girls’ weekend getaway. Remember to always circumscribe your needs and appetites to moderate, manageable levels. This is the only thing that makes you lovable.
1. Stay positive. Because you have to, every minute. Because if you weren’t, if you tried to stop, you would unloose a furious, grieving ocean of ache and desire and throbbing, vicious hatred that would drown the world.
[Image via Flickr]