The act of self care is often one of those things in life that we neglect because we are often so busy looking after other people. The truth is that it is so important to take care of your self.
This includes taking care of your mental wellbeing, your body and your health. This means that you will be able to not only look after yourself but you are also able to care for other people better.
Take time to replenish yourself through rest and self care. These quotes below will motivate you to look after yourself and realize that looking after yourself is far from being selfish.
Related: Self Care Sunday: 28 Best Tips for Focusing on Yourself
Inspiring Self Care Quotes To Help You Take Care Of Yourself
1. “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
2. “Love yourself enough to set boundaries. Your time and energy are precious. You get to choose how you use it. You teach people how to treat you by deciding what you will and won’t accept.”- Anna Taylor
3. “Self love is asking yourself what you need – everyday – and then making sure you receive it.” – Unknown
4. “To fall in love with yourself is the first secret to happiness.”- Robert Morley
5. “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” – Anne Lamott
6. “Self care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.”- Parker Palmer
7. “Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
8. “Have patience with all things. But, first of all with yourself.” – Francis de Sales
9. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” – Oscar Wilde
10. “An empty lantern provides no light. Self care is the fuel that allows your light to shine brightly.” – Unknown
11. “Talk to yourself as you would to someone you love.” – Brené Brown
12. “Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.”- Stephen Covey
13. “A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms” – Unknown
14. “Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” – Oprah Winfrey
15. “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.” – Shannon l Alder
16. “Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.”- William Shakespeare
17. “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
18. “Self care is how you take your power back.” – Lalah Delia
19. “When you say ‘yes’ to others make sure you are not saying ‘no’ to yourself.” – Paulo Coelho
20. “When we care for ourselves as our very own beloved—with naps, healthy food, clean sheets, a lovely cup of tea—we can begin to give in wildly generous ways to the world, from abundance.” – Anne Lamott
21. “Self care equals success.” – Dixie L. Nichols
22. “The Universe will never require you to set yourself on fire to provide heat for others.”- Clyde Lee Dennis
23. “If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”- Jack Kornfield
24. “Take time off. The world will not fall apart without you.” – Malebo Sephodi
25. “Every morning, look in the mirror and affirm positive words into your life.”- Lailah Gifty Akita
26. “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”- Maya Angelou
27. “Of all the judgments we pass in life, none is more important than the judgment we pass on ourselves.” – Nathaniel Branden
28. “Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.” – Albert Einstein
29. “Love yourself first, and everything else falls in line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.” – Lucille Ball
30. “Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give, and nobody will care for you.”- Karl Lagerfeld
31. “Life should be touched, not strangled. You’ve got to relax, let it happen at times, and at others move forward with it.” –Ray Bradbury
32. “Keep good company, read good books, love good things and cultivate soul and body as faithfully as you can.” – Louisa May Alcott
33. “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”- Bell Hooks
34. “The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.”- Bob Moawad
35. “It’s not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, and to make your happiness a priority. It’s necessary.” – Mandy Hale
36. “It’s so empowering to say ‘this isn’t serving me’ and walk away in peace.” – Unknown
37. “If you have the ability to love, love yourself first.”- Charles Bukowski
38. “Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort. ” – Deborah Day
39. “For us to feel good emotionally, we have to look after ourselves.” ― Sam Owen
40. “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.”- Helen Keller
41. “Don’t let hollow heroes distract you from saving yourself.”- Nikki Rowe
42. “In the end these things matter most: How well did you love? How fully did you live? How deeply did you let go?” – Jack Kornfield
43. “Rest and self care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.”- Eleanor Brown
44. “When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.”- Jean Shinoda Bolen
45. “You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.” – Richelle E. Goodrich
46. “Choose, every day, to forgive yourself. You are human, flawed, and most of all worthy of love.” – Alison Malee
47. “I make it a point to practice self care. I make an appointment with myself.” – Manisha Singal
48. “The most powerful relationship you will ever have is the relationship with yourself. ” – Steve Maraboli
49. “If you aren’t good at loving yourself, you will have a difficult time loving anyone, since you’ll resent the time and energy you give another person that you aren’t even giving to yourself.” – Barbara De Angelis
50. “By taking care of myself I have so much more to offer the world than I do when I serve from an empty place.” Ali Washington
51. “Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” – William Faulkner
52. “Though we all make mistakes, don’t handicap yourself in difficult tasks; self-sabotage is not a strategy. Sometimes all you need to do is protect yourself from your own self.” – Efrat Cybulkiewicz
53. “To be a good parent, you need to take care of yourself so that you can have the physical and emotional energy to take care of your family.”- Michelle Obama
Related: 140 Inspiring Quotes About Facing Fear and Overcoming Fear
54. “When admiring other people’s gardens, don’t forget to tend to your own flowers.”- Sanober Khan
55. “The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I’m not going to let myself pull me down anymore.”– C. JoyBell
56. “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”- Buddha
57. “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”― Audre Lorde
58. “I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.” – Rita Mae Brown
59. “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” – Carlos Castaneda
60. “Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.” – Lao-Tzu
61. “If you want to live an authentic, meaningful life, you need to master the art of disappointing and upsetting others, hurting feelings, and living with the reality that some people just won’t like you. It may not be easy, but it’s essential if you want your life to reflect your deepest desires, values, and needs.”- Cheryl Richardson
62. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson
63. “Some days are going to be more of a struggle than others. That is okay and you need to forgive yourself in order to keep going—and growing.” – Sara Ahmed
64. “Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.”- Maxwell Maltz
65. “Accept yourself, love yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” – Roy T. Bennett
66. “Life’s too short to spend it at war with yourself.” – Unknown
67. “Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck
68. “Gard the doors of your temple, do not let anyone pollute it with there mess.” – Patricio Telman Chincocolo
69. “Others can’t always define your true identity. They see what they ‘want’ to see but beyond your mess, God sees the beauty He created and still thinks it’s good!” – Chinonye J. Chidolue
70. “No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you’ve come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.” – Madonna
71. “When we give ourselves compassion, we are opening our hearts in a way that can transform our lives.” – Kristin Neff
72. “How we care for ourselves gives our brain messages that shape our self-worth so we must care for ourselves in every way, every day.”- Sam Owen
73. “Practice self-rescue first before you ‘help’ someone else” – Maureen Joyce Connolly
74. “Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”- Bell Hooks
75. “When the body forces you to STOP it’s saying, hey buddy, you’ve gone too far.”- Jacqueline Escolme
76. “Take the time today to love yourself. You deserve it.” – Avina Celeste
77. “Learning self care is like building your own lifeboat, plank by plank. Once you’ve got your boat, you’ll still be rocked by the waves of life, but you’ll have a feeling of safety, and stability that means you can pick other people up on your way.” – Nadia Narain
78. “Instead of indulging in ‘comfort food,’ indulge in comfort meditation, comfort journaling, comfort walking, comfort talking, comfort manicures, comfort reading, comfort yoga, comfort hugging.” – Karen Salmansohn
79. “People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer.”- Dan Pearce
80. “Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you’re worthy of the trip.”- Glenn Beck
81. “It is so important to take time for yourself and find clarity. The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.” – Diane Von Furstenberg
82. “Your mind is a powerful thing. When you fill it with positive thoughts your life will start to change.” – Unknown
83. “When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.” – John Lennon
84. “For me, recovery and self care are inextricably connected. My recovery from abuse, addiction, and a suicide attempt required dump truck loads of self care.” – Steve Austin
85. “Any time we listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves but for the many others whose lives we touch.” – Parker L. Palmer
86. “Self care and compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.”-Christopher Germer
87. “Don’t take your health for granted. Don’t take your body for granted. Do something today that communicates to your body that you desire to care for it. Tomorrow is not promised.” – Jada Pinkett Smith
88. “Self care is giving the world the best of you, instead of what’s left of you.” – Katie Reed
89. “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”- Lucille Ball
90. “If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” – Banksy
91. “Sometimes the hardest part of the journey is believing you’re worthy of the trip.”- Glenn Beck
92. “Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” – Jim Rohn
93. “The challenge is not to be perfect—it is to be whole.” – Jane Fonda
94. “Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people.”- Roy T. Bennett
95. “I believe that the greatest gift you can give your family and the world is a healthy you.” – Joyce Meyer
96. “Unless you fill yourself up first, you have nothing to give anybody. Therefore, it is imperative that you tend to your joy first. People are responsible for their own joy. When you tend to your joy and do what makes you feel good, you are a joy to be around and you are a shining example to every child and every person in your life. When you are feeling joy, you don’t even have to think about giving. It is a natural overflow.”- Rhonda Byrne
97. “Carve out and claim the time to care for yourself and kindle your own fire.”- Amy Ippoliti
98. “Self care has become a new priority – the revelation that it’s perfectly permissible to listen to your body and do what it needs.” – Frances Ryan
99. “Never forget that once upon a time, in an unguarded moment, you recognized yourself as a friend.” –Elizabeth Gilbert
100. “Taking care of myself doesn’t mean ‘me first.’ It means ‘me, too.” – L.R. Knost
101. “Our self-respect tracks our choices. Every time we act in harmony with our authentic self and our heart, we earn our respect. It is that simple. Every choice matters.”- Dan Coppersmith
102. “If you don’t love yourself, nobody will. Not only that, you won’t be good at loving anyone else. Loving starts with the self.”- Wayne Dyer
103. “The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.” – J. Krishnamurti
104. “Honoring your own boundaries is the clearest message to others to honor them, too.”- Gina Greenlee
105. “Close your eyes and imagine the best version of you possible. That’s who you really are, let go of any part of you that doesn’t believe it.” – C. Assaad
106. “Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.”- Hermann Hesse
107. “You have to believe in yourself when no one else does—that makes you a winner right there.”- Venus Williams
108. “Just when you feel you have no time to relax, know that this is the moment you most need to make time to relax.”- Matt Haig
109. “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”- Dolly Parton
110. “Allow yourself to enjoy each happy moment in your life.”- Steve Maraboli
111. “If you’re facing a problem, don’t tell yourself that you can’t do it. Convince yourself that you have the strength to deal with almost anything because of the way you were raised. And you do! Recognizing your core strengths is an important step toward having joie de vivre. You can count on better days to come because of the good days that came before. And you can find joy in the moment because you have the resiliency to overcome the problems that may be hanging over you.”- Ruth K. Westheimer
112. “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”- John F. Kennedy
113. “Man will never be stronger nor independent if he lives under perpetual motivation of others.” – Toba Beta
114. “With every act of self care your authentic self gets stronger, and the critical, fearful mind gets weaker. Every act of self care is a powerful declaration: I am on my side, I am on my side, each day I am more and more on my own side.” – Susan Weiss Berry
