editor’s note: Hi Mavens! We’re happy to bring you a special guest post by dynamic wife and husband duo (and MC readers!) Kari Chapin and Eric Nixon. Here they share a chat about their own self-care habits and struggles, and it’s darn cute to see how they support one another throughout. Thanks for the great read, Kari & Eric!

Kari Chapin: Hey, Eric. Surprise! J and J from Maven Circle asked if I wanted to write an article in February about self-care. Since we are married, work together in the same room 7 days a week and are around each other 24/7, and both read The Maven Circle, I asked if they would be interested in an article written by both of us. I thought we could have a back and forth email conversation about self-care. What do you think? If you’re game I’ll go ahead and start.

What do you think self-care is?

Eric Nixon: Sure! I think self-care is about focusing on and taking care of your needs. This probably relates more to mental and emotional health, but can probably also be applied to your environment, social, physical, and spiritual needs. As for what form it takes for us individually, that’s a bit more complex.

Kari: Whoa. That is way more of an answer than I was expecting! I didn’t think you had any thoughts on self-care at all! And I can tell you’ve been working on a new website, that covers most these exact same topics you just listed. I would say that self care is the practice of meeting yourself where you’re at and making adjustments when you need to, all in with the goal of making sure ones personal needs are being met while one is going about the business of creating life.

My own version of self-care comes from trying to remain authentic, following my intuition, and cutting myself breaks when I need to. I have read a lot about self-care because I addressed it in Grow Your Handmade Business. From what I gather, to a lot of people, it means realizing when you need to slow down or honor yourself, but I generally find that kind of conversation to be too hard for someone like me to follow. I feel like I’m honoring myself most of the time and don’t consider it something I need to make a point of doing. To me self care is making sure I’m happy as often as I can be. Pretty much, if I don’t like it, I don’t do it. This doesn’t always work for me though, as I can often be so focused on making myself happy that I put off things that need to get done, because they are less interesting to me, but still important to my life overall. Ugh.

{by guest maven, Willo O’Brien}

When Jen first contacted me about writing on the Maven Circle blog, she said, “the topic this month is loose.”

She went on to say that this month’s posts are mostly about habits and organization in light of the new year, but hilariously I took the first sentence literally, and started thinking about the things we do in our lives really loosely – the things we do without focus or clear boundaries and which waiver and stray. They’re executed poorly or more often never at all. Interestingly enough, this tangential misunderstanding ties in beautifully with what I wanted to share with you on my Truthy Tuesday.

If you’ve been following this blog, and the incredible work Jen & Jena have been putting out into the world, you’ll know that they’ve been spreading the good word about how crucial self-care is for staying happy and healthy. Being a creative entrepreneur myself over the last 10+ years, I have had the opportunity to learn this lesson many times over.

Self-care is a funny thing though. We all know it’s important, but for many of us we don’t quite know what it means. More importantly, what does it mean for ME personally? I mean, I know I should floss, and eat my vegetables, and drink water and get enough sleep. That should do it, right?

That’s a great start, but self-care is a lot more than just covering the basics. In fact, it’s with this general view of self-care that we can often find ourselves wavering. Like any plan, or journey, if there’s not a clear roadmap, our odds of getting lost or off-course are pretty high.

How I Learned the Hard Way

In my first few years of self-employment, I veered off course badly. Really, really badly. Again and again and again. Back then I was doing design work for clients, and they were my top priority. I needed to make sure they were taken care of and happy every day. This fed me in more ways than one. I loved being needed. I loved the appreciation. Oh ya, and the checks flowing in were nice, too! Bottom line is nothing else mattered. Until all of a sudden it did.