Self-care is one of those phrases that appears everywhere. We are encouraged to take time for ourselves, rest more, spend time in nature, exercise, meditate, sleep better and switch off from stress. In principle, these are all valuable suggestions.
The challenge is that when someone is struggling with burnout, anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, illness or overwhelming life circumstances, many of these recommendations can feel completely out of reach.
As Yoga Therapists, it is important that we pause and ask ourselves whether the advice we are giving is genuinely accessible to the person sitting in front of us.
Watch: Don't Give Impossible Self-Care Advice
Recently, I worked with a client who had been referred to me because of severe burnout. During one of our early sessions, he shared his frustration with the advice he had been receiving.
"Everyone keeps telling me to go for long walks in nature," he said. "If I could go for a long walk in nature, I wouldn't be here."
His words stayed with me because they captured something that is easy to overlook. Many forms of self-care assume that people have a certain level of energy, time, physical capacity and emotional bandwidth available to them. Yet the very reason someone may be seeking support is because those resources have already been depleted.
This does not mean the advice itself is wrong. Spending time in nature can be deeply restorative. Prioritising sleep is important. Exercise can be beneficial for both physical and mental health.
The question is whether those practices are realistic for the person at this particular moment in their life.
In Yoga Therapy, we are often called to work with what is possible rather than what is ideal.
For this client, the solution was not to insist that he go for a walk in nature. Instead, we began by walking slowly up and down the yoga mat. As his confidence and energy grew, we expanded those walks beyond the mat and around the room. Sometimes we added gentle arm movements. Afterwards, we would settle into restorative practice and visualise being outdoors in nature.
For several weeks, this was our version of the walk.
It was not a replacement for being outside, but it was an accessible starting point. More importantly, it respected the reality of where he was. Before he could undertake longer walks, he first needed to rebuild his energy and reconnect with a sense of possibility.
I often think the same principle applies when we talk about sleep. Telling someone that they need eight hours a night may be technically correct, but it is not always helpful if they are caring for young children, working shifts, living with anxiety, or lying awake for hours worrying that they are not sleeping enough.
In these situations, a short Yoga Nidra practice may be a more realistic place to begin. Even then, we may need to work creatively with the client to find a time, place or format that fits into their life.
This is why collaboration is such an important part of Yoga Therapy. Rather than prescribing a solution, we explore together what feels achievable. We look for the smallest meaningful step rather than the perfect intervention.
Sometimes self-care can unintentionally become another source of pressure. Another thing that someone feels they should be doing but cannot manage. Our role is not to add to that burden. Our role is to help clients discover practices that support them from where they are today.
Often, the most effective self-care practice is not the most ambitious one. It is simply the one that feels possible.
A Question for Reflection
The next time you recommend a self-care practice to a client or student, ask yourself:
Am I offering something that is genuinely accessible for this person right now, or am I asking them to do something they currently don't have the capacity to achieve?
Sometimes that question alone can transform the way we work.
