The Importance of Intellectual Self-Care

As I was preparing for a drive today, I found myself almost frantically perusing through the many podcasts I am subscribed to trying to decide what entertainment I wanted to consume for what is--on average--a one hour trip both ways. I have interests that vary from writing, publishing, politics, true-crime, and culture. Each of them has been carefully selected by me for varying reasons. I am a snob for quality content, so it must sound good, have good information and hold my interest in the first ten minutes. While all of them are enriching to me for lots of reasons that I will not get into today, they are still mostly just pure escapism, with the occasional bit of news thrown in.

So today, I stopped myself from indulging in the deliciousness of content and instead decided that what I needed was some intellectual self-care. Whether that is a thing, I don't know, but I feel as though that phrase is fitting to the subject so I'm going with it.

Of the many things, I subscribe to but neglect is both my Kindle Unlimited and Audible Memberships. I must have so many credits at this point it's ridiculous, but I digress.

Anyway, it got me thinking about how much I'm been neglecting the parts of my brain that stimulate and inform. The spark that I used to get from researching the new wave of self-publishing and the different ways to market books, and so forth. It used to ignite a hunger in me to create that's been dormant. Sure I'm been busy with projects but in the process, I've forgotten about number one.

That's where intellectual self-care comes in. The method of self-care where you stop consuming your content for amusement and take time to improve your intellectual skills. These are the abilities of discourse, creativity, habit and follow through. In my own story, I decided that an audiobook of affiliate marketing was more useful than an unsolved murder from the '90s. This hit all the content criteria plus gave me the skills and information I can use in my own business.

So dedicate some time during the week to consume something that can help you grow as a thriving individual. Make sure that content is pure, without any kind of slant designed to evoke an emotional response to take sides on an issue. Pure information meant to add something, rather than take something away.