Self-care sounds like a luxury - something you'll allow yourself only once you've finished everything else. The problem is that this “everything else” never ends. And so, day after day, a person stays last on their own list.

This is exactly the trap experts describe: the accelerated pace, family and work obligations, and a culture that teaches us to think of others first drive us, unconsciously, to neglect ourselves. We sleep less, eat in a hurry, put off check-ups, ignore the fatigue. And then we wonder why we have no energy.

First, we need to be clear about what self-care even means. Social media has reduced it to bubble baths and a day at the spa, but the truth is simpler and harder - it is attention to physical, emotional and mental health. Listening to yourself, respecting your boundaries and making decisions that serve you in the long run.

Advice one: schedule time for yourself as if it were an important meeting. Fifteen to twenty minutes a day for a walk, reading, exercise or rest - and protect that time just as you would protect a business appointment. It is not selfish not to give up on yourself.

Advice two: free yourself of guilt. Self-care doesn't take away your care for others - on the contrary. When you are rested and composed, you make better decisions and offer those closest to you a more balanced version of yourself. An empty vessel fills nothing.

Advice three: don't forget the mind along with the body. Real care demands a mental break too - put the phone aside and devote yourself to something without pressure. Meditation, silence, a walk with no destination - that is the oxygen we rarely allow ourselves.

In the end, the point is simple but uncomfortable: wellbeing is not a reward you earn after finishing your obligations. It is the foundation that gives you the strength to finish them at all. The only question is whether you'll wait another week - or start today.