Q & A with Dr. B.

Dr. Larry Berkelhammer

The purpose of this website, my book, and the Community Education course I teach at the College of Marin, is to teach people how to live a vibrant, meaningful life through the cultivation of self-empowerment and self-efficacy. In this weekly Q&A column, I post questions from students and from people who attend my presentations along with my answers.

Here is this week’s question:

QUESTION: What is the difference between self-care and loving self-care?

ANSWER: The term self-care refers to behaviors related to nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress-management, social connections, and other health-generative behaviors described throughout this page and throughout the book. Very few people engage in optimal self-care. Loving self-care, as I use the term, refers to an optimal level of self-care and self-love that you would normally extend to a newborn infant. Loving self-care is the natural evolution of the realization that we are in a mutually dependent relationship with our bodies.

Native Americans used to have the philosophy that Mother Earth should always be protected because if we destroy her, we destroy our home. Loving self-care is about the realization that if we harm our bodies in any way, we harm our home. This may seem obvious, but then, why isn’t that reflected in our behavior? Why don’t more of us extend the love and care to ourselves that we extend to a newborn infant?

Recommended reading in the book: Read Chapter 14 Practice Loving Self-Care.

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges or issues related to wellbeing. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

If you would like to ask me something, you can type your question in the comment box below. An answer to your specific question may not necessarily appear in this column. The reason for that is I wait until I get a certain number of related questions, then I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.