TINY BUDDHA'S
BREAKING BARRIERS TO SELF-CARE

1. Career

We spend most of our waking hours as adults working jobs to pay our bills. And for many of us, our work isn't a source of passion, pleasure, or satisfaction. We end up settling for high-stress roles in toxic environments, or boring jobs that don't excite or challenge us.

It might seem like we're stuck or have no other options, but this is the voice of our conditioning. This is a reflection of what we learned we deserve and what's possible for ourselves and our lives. That's not to say finding fulfilling work is easy, just that's impossible if we don't even try. And we only try when believe that something is achievable.

When we overcome our internal barriers to self-care, we're able to recognize when we're not living in alignment with our values. We're also better equipped to have hard, honest conversations—with ourselves and others—so we can start working toward a career that's more lucrative and fulfilling.

If you're already in a fulfilling job but struggle with self-worth and self-care, you might end up sabotaging yourself because you feel bad about yourself. Or you might find it hard to be present and productive because you're depleted from not meeting your core needs. Overcoming your internal blocks could be the key to enjoying the good things in your life instead of feeling like you don't deserve them.

2. Money

Financial security might seem unrelated to self-care, but there's actually a strong connection. If you don't deeply value and care for yourself, you might:

• Sabotage opportunities to increase your earning potential (as I did for years).
• Self-soothe by spending money on junk food, booze, drugs, clothes, or other physical things.
• Make poor financial decisions from a place of burnout-induced brain fog.
• Spend money on things you think you're supposed to want instead of what actually brings you joy.
• Decline opportunities to invest in yourself because you don't believe you're worth it.
• Loan money you can't afford to lose to people who are unlikely to repay it because you struggle with saying no.
• Settle for a life of mounting debt and financial stress because you don't believe you're capable of creating a more financially secure life for yourself.

By recognizing the beliefs that keep you stuck in lack, you free yourself to start making healthier decisions around money and changing your financial situation for the better.

3. Relationships

Our beliefs about our worth and the care we deserve impact our relationships in three significant ways.

First, we attract people based on what we believe we deserve. If we don't treat ourselves with love, kindness, and respect, we're more likely to attract people who treat us the same. People who might treat themselves the same, as well.

Secondly, we are attracted to what we believe we deserve. If we're rooted in self-neglect as opposed to self-care, because this is what we experienced growing up, we'll likely seek out partners who repeat this dynamic because it's familiar—which means in some way, it feels safe.

We accept the care we believe we deserve. When we're rooted in a sense of unworthiness, we often ignore signs that a relationship is unhealthy or even abusive. We allow people to demean us, disrespect us, or control us. We stay with people who betray our trust, belittle our dreams, and keep us walking on eggshells.

We settle for relationships that confirm our beliefs about ourselves. Which means we can only experience better by believing we deserve better, and then acting like it.

4. Physical Health

This is the obvious one. We all know that to be physically healthy, we need to take care of our bodies. We need to get enough rest, eat foods that nourish us, exercise regularly, and avoid (or at least reduce) self-destructive habits.

But we don't often talk about why it's so hard for most of us to do these things. We convince ourselves that we struggle with our weight or drink too much because we're weak or there's something wrong with us. Then, weighed down by our self-judgment and shame, we're more likely to turn to behaviors that hurt us and less likely to do the things that we know are good for us.

The key to improving our physical health isn't just making a list of behaviors we need to change or adopt; it's healing the wounds and overcoming the beliefs that have caused us to neglect or hurt ourselves.

It's recognizing that we deserve to feel strong and healthy, and changing from a place of self-worth and self-love instead of trying to hate or shame ourselves into transformation.

5. Mental Health

Let's face it: Life is stressful for all of us. And for those of us with trauma in our backgrounds, it's even more likely we'll struggle with anxiety, depression, and addictive behaviors that can lead to toxic shame.

Especially now that self-care is such a huge buzzword, most of us know that we need to honor our needs if we hope to cope with the demands of our daily lives without eventually breaking down.

But many of us have no idea what those needs are, or why we keep getting in our way—so we struggle to consistently do the things that would bring some sense of peace and joy to our days.

Self-care is the key to feeling emotionally balanced and mentally stable. It's the little choices that help us get through the day and the big choices that help us do more than just get through life.

And if you struggle with mental illness, it can be the key to both managing your symptoms and preventing them from getting worse.

It all starts with believing our self-care matters. Which really means believing that we matter. This course can help you do just that.