While self-care has been thrown around as a buzzword for a while – just ask busy moms and stressed-out workers – the strain of our world in the past two years since COVID has piqued its interest in the mainstream.

Many of us have had our lives turned upside down with changes – working from home, homeschooling children, quarantine, and the uncertainty of how sick we could get. We’ve seen friends and neighbors get ill – some not make it – and we’ve held out hope that this would all pass soon. As days turned into months and then years, we’ve found a new way of existence. As we continue with mixed messages on the next variant or how the world is coping, self-care can play a massive role in our wellness plans.

The subject is top of mind because we can feel the increase in the mental and emotional fragility all around us in some form or fashion, increasing to unimaginable levels since COVID entered our lexicon. It doesn’t appear to be diminishing. “We have an epidemic of anxiety and depression,” according to Paula Gill Lopez, Ph.D., quoted in a May 2021 article by Moira Lawler. Click the title, EVERYDAY HEALTH, to learn more.

What’s more, this issue of anxiety and depression does not begin at the leadership level. It begins a concerning number of years before beginning the climb up the executive ladder. It can begin as early as when children are at school in less-than-ideal situations. While necessary for the public’s safety, the reactions of schools and government to the Covid-19 pandemic have undoubtedly taken its toll on our youth. This may affect these children down the road. Click the title, The Effect of COVID-19 on Education, to learn more.

Dealing with COVID-19 is just one example of how anxiety and depression impacts one’s ability to function effectively. This makes restorative self-care that much more of an essential practice now.

Many coaching experts have sprung out of the woodwork, and wellness offerings are found throughout the market. In our interactions with others, topical conversations inevitably morph into those asking how we are doing.

When we stop to think about the answer and are honest with ourselves, the response may not be “fine.” Sooner or later, we question how we’ve weathered the storm and realize that maybe a bit of self-care might just be the solution.

The difference in the components of self-care is as unique as the spectrum of color given off when light hits the facets of a diamond. As you might imagine, to define all that self-care represents is an exhausting effort, impossible to accomplish in a lifetime. You could comfortably equate self-care with your life’s journey that continues to unfold and reveal itself with each breath. The breath being the ultimate fundamental and innate ability of humans to survive.

The importance of self-care for leaders lies in what each individual values, commits to, and how we live our daily lives in service to the overall well-being of the mind, body, and spirit. Our families, communities, and organizations depend on us as individuals and whole human beings. The whole of you requires your attention to live your intention to contribute.

One aspect of the whole lacking attention means the lack of the whole. Then we struggle to be all that we are capable of to function, play, work, create, and prosper as followers and leaders who get things done well.