I always thought that self-care was a bubble bath, a massage, or a pedicure. You know the things that everyone lists as self-care. But over the last several years of my PCOS healing journey, I have discovered an entirely new meaning and list of self-care and some incredible benefits of it for my PCOS root cause. Listen now so you can start weaving self-care into your day to improve your PCOS hormones too.  How Self-Care Benefits PCOS Root Cause Healing It’s easy to neglect taking care of ourselves because we’re busy and overwhelmed by everything we need to get done. Even a small rest feels like a luxury. Taking time to eat lunch, exercise, and hang out with friends just feels like slacking.This mindset backfires so BIG! Because self-care actually helps you make progress faster for a few reasons:Self-care prevents “overload burnout”: We’ve all been there: you push yourself to the point that you can’t take anymore so you just give up. Selfcare helps you avoid getting to that point.Self-care reduces the negative effects of stress: A small amount of stress can serve a purpose, but after a while, it just breaks down your mind and body. Taking care of yourself means keeping your stress from taking over so you can function at full capacity.Self-care helps us refocus: When I was stuck on a complicated math problem in school, my teacher would suggest walking away and coming back—taking a break, basically. Breaks are the epitome of self-care, and studies show they’re great for helping you perform better.Sometimes I treat self-care as a reward. I’m so hungry I can barely think, but I’ll force myself to finish a batch of work before I eat lunch. What I’m really doing is making my job more difficult by allowing myself to run on fumes.In other words, self-care is not a reward. It’s part of the process. Sometimes we get so used to “rewarding ourselves” with lunch or even a trip to the bathroom, that we forget exactly what it means to take care of ourselves.The Self-Care Frame Of MindAlso, sometimes eating junk feels like self-care. I often “treat” myself with a handful of Oreos. Nothing wrong with the occasional indulgence, but in contrast, I think of healthy food as the enemy, so I don’t eat as much of it as I “should”. This really involves changing the way you think about eating well entirely, but you can start by experimenting with healthy foods you might actually like, and not trying to force yourself to eat stuff you hate just because it’s healthy.There are so many ways of practicing self-care and I think that if you listen to this episode you’ll begin to think outside the box about all the ways you can practice self-care even in your current daily schedule.So if you are ready to incorporate some fun and easy ways to practice self-care go ahead and listen to this episode now. A full list of Resources & References Mentioned can be found on the Episode webpage.