Self-Care A-Z: Self-Care Is Practicing With Purpose

by Keneathia Adkins, LLMSW, MSW

     Perseverance. Strengths. Resiliency. Motivation. These familiar words are more than just good terms for case notes and programming. Through challenging experiences, these principles have formed my self-care philosophy.

Crises & Opportunities

     Graduating with my MSW, I was under the spell of accomplishment. Walking across the stage, I thought, “This is it! I’ve arrived! Now, I can accomplish anything!” However, simultaneous with graduation, my position of eight years was eliminated.  

     New graduate, no job. I felt lost. After careful consideration, I decided to relocate to Detroit, Michigan. I’d researched. Detroit is resilient. Rebuilding the broken, finding the lost, redefining the city: I wanted to be part of it. 

     For two months, I traveled back and forth, staying with family in Detroit, while maintaining my Louisville, Kentucky, apartment. After multiple interviews, I accepted a job. That evening, while celebrating this new job, my sister called to tell me my apartment had been robbed. 

     No place to live, with few belongings, I started a new job in a new city. Quickly, I saw why this agency had a high burnout rate. After three months, I resigned.

     This relocation was not going well! Burglarized, unemployed, responsibilities piling up!  Flabbergasted, I thought: How can I reset? 

     I revisited my roots; I called on my personal faith. I realized that I needed to re-focus. One month later, I had the job I needed and, after two months, my own house.  

Practicing with Purpose

     Through this reset, four practice principles solidified my personal self-care practice philosophy. 

     Perseverance. Nothing worth having comes easy; if it does, it’s often lost even more easily.  When you have a dream or vision, don’t let anything stop you. Not even yourself! You may need to slow down, reset/restart, and redefine success. But, never quit! 

     Strengths. What do you do well?  I excel in resiliency. No matter what happens, I press forward. I learned at an early age that life was hard, unfair, and traumatizing. Yet, even in unpleasantness, my strengths lens allows me to envision growth through lessons, make a beautiful picture out of messes, and pursue justice.  

     Resiliency. Use what should have broken you as a learning experience. Albert Einstein asserted that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed. I interpret that to mean that I was born with everything I need to be who I’m called to be. No situation or person can change that. I can use traumatic experiences to progress or digress. And, I choose growth!

     Motivation. Find what motivates you and use that as fuel. My motivation is service, which takes the form of healing the broken. This service comes through various channels,and each channel is like coals in the furnace of motivation for me.

     These four principles link under the umbrella of purpose. Sustaining my purpose is my life-force. This self-care philosophy goes deeper than relaxing or pampering, which are valid forms of self-care that I use. All these sustain my purpose.

     What’s your philosophy of self-care? What principles help you stay centered in your purpose?

Keneathia Adkins, LLMSW, MSW, is a residential therapist at a child welfare organization in Detroit, Michigan. Keneathia has more than 12 years experience in human services, primarily in child welfare. She hopes her journey of self-care can help others on their path of purpose and professional discovery.

For more self-care ideas, check out The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals