I am not a fan of the term “Self Care.” One definition for it is: Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental emotional and physical health.

My point is that I feel it is really too bad that we have gotten to a state where we need to be reminded to take care of ourselves. Anyone who has travelled on an airplane knows that in the case of an emergency you put the air mask on yourself before you put it on anyone else. The big message is that we are no good for others if we’re not in good shape ourselves.

Here we are in crisis. COVID-19 has hit big. No one is escaping some effect of this one. If it hasn’t affected you physically it has likely affected you financially and without a doubt emotionally. I believe that our achilles heel is that we haven’t been taking adequate care of ourselves. Let’s face it if we’re struggling to find time to deliberately attend to our basic needs we must know on some level that we are living at the top of a house of cards. We are weak.

I remember after the Twin Towers fell everyone talked about making changes in their lives. To want less and do more. To be kinder. To slow down. To appreciate the small things. The question we need to ask is did we do that? Did we learn from that horrific event or did we revert to the way life was before?

To me this pandemic is all about showing us who is the boss. Call it the universe call it a greater power call it Mother Nature – this is a huge message and it’s coming at us with the proverbial baseball bat. There is no question in my mind that we will get through this in some way shape or form. I really hope that we are wiser on the other side. We have to change our ways. We have to make our physical mental and even our financial health a priority. We have to acknowledge and understand our weaknesses in order to strengthen them.

In my time on this planet I often heard the terms “tree hugger” and “navel gazer” used in derogatory ways. I will admit the younger me would shy away from expressing my love of nature and my passion for self-improvement. Today I can see the benefits of exercising both of these traits. At this very moment with social distancing in full swing both of those activities are 100 per cent safe.

How about we take this time to reflect on what got us here. We are all responsible for that in some way. Then let’s use this awareness to plan for our future. I feel that the future will look very different from the past. Now is the time while we have the time to make those life changes we’ve been thinking about making.

One last point – instead of calling it self care I suggest we call it basic survival.

Something to think about.

Laurie Sweig is a certified personal fitness trainer and spinning instructor. She owns and operates The Point for Fitness. She can be reached at laurie@thepointforfitness.com .