We recognize that habit-building and good mental health can’t be isolated to just one corner of the internet. Myrth is our favorite tool, but it’s not our only tool. In our regular Recommended Reading series, we’ll share links to articles, books, and other tools that we think you’ll find helpful in your journey.

In our previous Recommended Reading installment, we talked about how the new school year is a great time to pick up new habits, even if you’re not going back to school yourself. One of the habits we strongly encourage here at Myrth is self-care, a habit that’s especially important at the start of the school year when routines are still fresh and enthusiasm is riding high. Here are some recent stories about self-care that we found helpful:

1. Four Simple Rules for Self Care

We loved this article from Katherine King, Psy.D., an assistant professor of psychology at William James College, because she focuses on the process of self-care, not the product. As she points out, self-care is not just about what we do periodically, but about how we live:

[S]elf-care is ultimately not about what you might do for an hour or two each week. Self-care is a way you live your life, and this includes how you relate to yourself each and every moment of the day. … [N]o self-caring behaviors will be effective if you are in the habit of stressing yourself out over and over again in your own mind. You may get a massage, but you’ll be thinking about work the whole time. You may take a yoga class, but you’ll be too busy comparing yourself to others in the room.

If you’re turned off by some of the more superficial coverage of self-care that focuses on what you can buy to make yourself feel better, then this article might be interesting to you.

2. Self-Care Isn’t Self Improvement

So much of the messaging around self-care has gotten pretty garbled, no doubt because lots of people are trying to ride self-care’s coattails to big profits. That’s why this article about how everybody deserves self-care, no matter where they are in their personal journey, resonates:

She says the aspects of the self-improvement industry, such as diet and weight loss, send the message that if people work harder and find their discipline, they’ll be able to fix what feels defective, and only then will they be worthy of self-care. “But self-care is different because it’s about allowing yourself to have a nurturing experience of life right now as opposed to when you work harder in the future,” Obuchowicz said.

It’s so easy to bribe ourselves with self-care for achieving certain goals, but self-care should be separate and apart from rewards for reaching milestones. Sure, have a spa day when you get the promotion you’ve worked hard for, but make sure you’re still giving yourself time for some meditation in the morning or a cup of soothing tea in the afternoon, too, regardless of how close you are to reaching your goal.

3. Self-Care as a Community Exercise

If you’ve been hanging out here for a while, you know we’re strong believers in the importance of community. It turns out we’re not alone. This article sums up the idea of community care, and why it’s an important addition to your self-care routine:

Community care is based on the belief that we’re interdependent and aren’t just here to care for ourselves. Rather, we all have the capacity to care for each other as well, said Wilson and Ritz. “Self-care tells you, ‘You need to rely on yourself.’ Community care is saying, ‘If you need help, there are people out here that you can turn to,’” Ritz said.

When things feel overwhelming and you’re having trouble figuring out where to start, it helps to have a community to support and guide you.

4. Encouraging Self-Care Through Workplace Culture

Work is a major source of stress and burn-out for a lot of people. Changing the culture of our workplaces can be hard, but as this article points out, it can have major benefits:

To shift our culture and the relationship we have with busy and burnout, we have to start with ourselves first; each of us individually doing what we can to nourish our own well-being and mindset. At the same time there are things we can do in our organizations, and with the teams we lead, to create a healthy “container” and systems that support us in doing so. When a bunch of us do this together, taking responsibility for our self-care and also helping things go well for others, we can better create a culture of thriving versus diving.

Workplace culture is a powerful driver of employee well-being. If you’re in a position of some power or authority in your workplace, it’s worth reading this article and thinking about how you can use some of its principles to shift your workplace culture toward a culture of self-care.

We hope, as you make your way into this new season, your self-care practices sustain and support you. Check back in when you’re ready and let us know how things are going. We love hearing from you.

How is your self-care practice going? Are you looking to build new self-care practices this fall? We hope you’ll share with us in the comments below.