🕯️IFS and Self-Care

Self-care in IFS isn’t bubble baths or checklists — it’s relationship. It’s the practice of tending to the inner world with the same gentleness we’d offer a beloved child.

• A managerial part may turn self-care into duty: I have to meditate, I have to journal.

• A guilty part may whisper, I don’t deserve rest.

• A fearful part may believe, If I slow down, everything will fall apart.

IFS invites a softer rhythm:

• “Which part of me needs care right now?”

• “What kind of care would feel nourishing, not forced?”

True self-care isn’t an activity — it’s listening. It’s giving each part what it truly needs: rest, expression, reassurance, or simple acknowledgment.

When Self leads, care stops being a task and becomes a way of being — a quiet devotion to the whole system’s wellbeing.