Self-care is the practice of consciously doing things that enhance and improve your life. There are many evidence supported benefits to self-care. Some commonly known benefits include reducing stress levels, maintaining health and balance, preventing burnout, improving sleep, reducing and eliminating anxiety and depression, improving energy levels, increasing happiness, and obtaining a deeper sense of fulfillment. Additionally, regular self-care helps to keep you connected to yourself. It fosters the bond that you have to your inner world. It helps you to stay up to date on your ever evolving interests and needs. How many of you truly know yourselves?? What is your favorite color, movie, food, vacation? Are those things different than they were 5 years ago?? As we grow and evolve our preferences are constantly changing. When we don’t know ourselves, we keep ourselves stuck in old, outdated patterns, behaviors, and preferences. Regular self-care helps you to stay connected with that part of yourself that is expanding to include exciting new things into your life. It also helps you to identify things that don’t quite fit anymore so that you can release them and make room to discover new things that you love.