Self care looks different for everyone. For some, it is about taking care of their physical bodies. For others – those who find themselves left with little to no time to indulge in any means of self care – it looks a little more like nurturing one’s soul so it doesn’t burnout. We all have different needs, and the challenge is to get in tune with ourselves to understand what personal needs we must attend to at any given moment.

What is it that truly will help us feel a sense of well being and joy? What can we do to boost our inner selves so that we don’t feel depleted and can take on whatever it is that we do, whether it’s caring for loved ones, doing our jobs, supporting our kids with their education, charitable work, social justice work and so on?

What are small, consistent and actionable steps we all can take to enrich and comfort our mind, body and soul, to help us deliberately choose happiness? How can we change our mindset to envision self care as a non-negotiable act of love and faith? We all deserve the best versions of ourselves, and Allah (S) has equipped us with the tools to get us there. Our challenge, though, is to figure out what those tools are for each of us.

Self care also can be about learning one’s heritage, acknowledging the pain and paving a path forward for growth. It means pride in one’s identity and history. For our Black sisters and brothers and marginalized communities, self care in this particular Black History Month may mean both taking pride in one’s identity and also managing the inevitable traumas.

We think about this in everything we do here at Haute Hijab, in the conversations we have with you on our platforms, and in the hijabs and accessories we produce. This is where our attention is always – and especially this month – as we focus on the things around us that can bring us joy, the things we actually can be in control of and do for ourselves in small doses.

On the blog Danah will be talking about small, actionable things we can incorporate into our daily routine to help us seek joy and good thoughts, and how doing this can help us feel stronger and more capable of giving back to our loved ones and our communities. We also will be talking about verses from the Quran that can bring us happiness and help us feel loved by our Creator while continuing to explore various aspects of Black History Month.

And on our social media platforms, we are bringing you one prompt every week this month to spark conversations and deeper thinking about how and what we can actively do to support and strengthen ourselves. We’ll also be bringing you our HH Glow Up challenge – tune into @hautehijab on Instagram to hear more about that! And finally, we have a gift for you towards the end of the month that we hope will encourage you to pay it forward!

The prevailing thing we all agreed upon at HH in a recent team-wide meeting is that we know it’s been hard – like really, really hard – for so many of us the past several months for reasons we all are all too painfully aware of. We want to do whatever we can to help you feel good, to help you feel confident in your inner and outer strength and beauty through stimulating conversations, stories and shared sisterhood as well as the hijabs and accessories we have to offer.

We are here for you. Let’s all figure out how we can be the best versions of ourselves, so we can then give the best of ourselves to each other.