I want you to think about a time when you came home after a long week. It’s FINALLY Friday! In your head, you’re already planning a solo movie and snacks night. You’re ready to kick back and enjoy the evening to yourself.

Suddenly, you remember that you were invited to an event tonight– late.

Anxiety suddenly takes over your peaceful image; the last thing you want to do is go out tonight, but you already made the commitments to your friend.

There’s two things that you could do here:

1. Suck it up and go out; who knows, maybe it’ll actually be fun!

2. Cancel and enjoy your night in, possibly missing out on a fun night with your friend

Though going out with your friend or not isn’t the biggest problem, whatever you choose can really reflect on what you value and thus prioritize. While friends are important, time for self-care and unwinding is mandatory as well. As a college student, I’ve realized that the driving force of prioritizing others is FOMO, or the fear of missing out. Staying at home on a Friday night is (generally) not “cool” and is “boring” compared to a nice dinner evening with friends.

Also, saying “no” to others is easier said than done. Saying no to ourselves and pushing our own limits is somehow easier. In a way, we might feel left out and that we are upsetting others when we choose ourselves first.

This brings me to the prompt, how do I tend to unwind after a long day? I say yes to myself and no to literally everyone else.

Doing this has helped me with “me” time, setting boundaries with others, and clearly being able to voice when I’m not comfortable with something at anytime. Being able to unwind after a long day is important, but also being able to prevent unnecessary stress with people in my life in the first place is a major part of self-care too.

Are you able to show up for yourself when it matters most? How can you work on making boundaries for yourself and others?

That’s it for this post! Bye!

Moesha ❤