Self-care = self-love

Self-care has exploded in popularity, with internet searches on the topic spiking during the coronavirus pandemic. Taylor Elyse Morrison, founder of Inner Workout (innerworkout.co), defines self-care as listening within and responding in the most loving way possible. “Self-care should be integrated into every aspect of your life. It’s an ongoing internal conversation. What do I need right now? How can I honour that request with love?”

Morrison’s start-up, Inner Workout, is designed to eliminate burnout by helping people build self-care practices through the five dimensions of wellbeing: physical, energetic, mental/emotional, wisdom and bliss. She offers classes both in-person and online that blend movement, breathwork, journaling and meditation, plus workshops and workbooks to support people’s self-care journeys. She says the idea for the company came from a place of need. “A few years ago, I was in a place where I was regularly burning myself out. I was working a full-time job, running a side hustle, volunteering, and planning a wedding. It was not a sustainable way to live, so I started exploring self-care.”

Right now, her favourite forms of self-care include taking long bike rides surrounded by nature and soaking in Epsom salt baths. “Epsom salt baths are so simple and so healing,” she says. “I feel tension melt away as I soak. My muscles release, and there’s often a mental or emotional release that happens as well.”