Juneteenth isn’t something that I celebrated growing up. I didn’t even learn about it until I moved to Minneapolis. So – like a lot of people – I’m still in the process of developing my Juneteenth traditions. This year I decided to engage in some self-care and get a pedicure.
The long road to self-care
Candidly, my health and wellness journey has been haphazard. It started during the COVID pandemic when we were forced to examine every aspect of our lives and how our every action could put us at risk for disease. And then, when we began to come out of the worst of the pandemic, I decided to be intentional about the activities that I allowed back into my life. That process is ongoing and it helps me make qualitatively different decisions about how I live my life.
The first changes were easy. I used to drink lots and lots of alcohol because that’s just what we did in my friend group. From college to 2020 I could be fairly described as “a drinker”. But once I was separated from that friend group, I drank substantially less. And getting drunk during lockdown was fun once or twice but without my friends the tradition lost all meaning. And then more recently, I refined my behavior so that I’m really only drinking when I think that alcohol benefits the experience rather than assuming that drinking alcohol will improve every experience.
Learning to exercise my body more was the next step on my journey. I’ve always taken a lot of photos of myself and had begun to notice changes in my body that I didn’t like. Thinking that this was as good a time as any to seek professional help, I hired a trainer! I see her twice a week and she puts me through it every session! Over time, and with the help of my trainer and other fitness friends, I adjusted my mindset to worry more about the health of my body rather than its appearance. Now I’m always happy with who I see when I look in the mirror and I’m very pleased with what my body can do!
And that brings us to self-care! I travelled a lot this Spring and hung out with lots of people that I love. That kept me very busy. But once my travel calendar is emptied I had time to really think about what else I could do to take better care of myself. I’ve taken care of the basics – diet and exercise – and now I feel ready to explore the indulgences a bit. That’s what turned me on to the idea of a pedicure. Just like hiring a trainer for my muscles, I decided to hire a professional to give my feet some extra attention and show me how they can look and feel if I invest in them a bit.
This pedicure happened to fall on Juneteenth so, in addition to the massage and polish, I also go to think about how much privilege it took to get me into that massage chair. Having two jobs that kept me steadily employed throughout the pandemic and that both recognize Juneteenth is a huge benefit that most people don’t have access to. I also have a husband who is thrilled by the idea of his husband indulging himself; that’s also something that I don’t take for granted.
I left the pedicure with a spring in my step. I’ve dipped my toes in the water (couldn’t resist) and now I’m ready to take the plunge. And that good feeling leads me to wish that everyone had the time, energy, and resources needed to think through and act on their own health and wellness journey and to indulge in the self-care practices that would best benefit them.
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