You know, I have spent my whole life taking care of myself, but just recently learning how to "nurture" myself.

I guess for me, there is a difference.

Taking care of myself is making sure I SURVIVE. It's making sure that I am fed and clothed and that I never need to ask anyone else for anything. Taking care of myself is not a gentle thing...in fact, it involves a lot of self-talk like "I should do better". A LOT of "shoulds", actually. A lot of criticism and never being satisfied. Kind of a lonely thing.

Nurturing myself is much more gentle. It is learning to accept who I am. It is allowing myself to do things that feed my soul...wrapping myself up with a warm blanket, letting myself crawl in bed and read, coloring mandalas with crayons I bought just for myself, taking knitting classes that *I* want to take, giving myself a BREAK and learning to like all of the parts of me.

I've taken care of myself since I was a toddler. But I just started "nurturing" myself in the past few months.

I needed a LOT of nurturing from T before I would even begin to consider doing those things for myself. I am starting to appreciate those younger parts of me, and the things they had to do to survive. I don't mind nurturing them the way that I used to.