If any of you follow me on Tumblr, you might have noticed the varying amounts of posts tagged #31daysofselfcare during December 2016. This was for postitforward’s “31 Days of Self-Care challenge,” which is where you participate in the 31 prompts that postitforward made for the whole month of December and put up posts about each of them them.
I learned about this challenge by the time it was around Day 3 or 4 of the challenge. I was going through a more stressful month than I hoped for, and I thought that maybe it would help me if I went through such a challenge. I didn’t end up going through all of the days of the challenge, but I did do what I think was a good number of them overall. Despite not doing all of the days of the challenge, I still found it nice, even relaxing at times, to post up something on an almost-daily basis.
When I put up my posts for Day 9 and Day 23, I was very shocked by the sheer amount of reblogs and likes I got for those posts when I put them up on those days! I never expected to get so many reblogs or likes for them, at all. I had less than thirty followers on Tumblr at the time, so I didn’t expect it to reach so many people, and I was even more surprised to get more followers after I put up these posts. I underestimated how quickly a post can travel so far, and in a way it taught me a lesson. That lesson was that writing can get across to a lot of people a lot faster than I thought, no matter how many followers you have when initially posting it.
I also learned that some people have different responses to what I wrote. A lot of them were positive responses, with countless likes and reblogs. One of them added “bathe in the blood of my enemies” when reblogging my Day 23 post, which I found hilarious (assuming they’re not serious about that actual statement). Other tumblrs that reblogged or responded to my post said that they wished they had friends to do these various activities that I listed on my post, because some of those suggested activities are more fun with/require more than one person. Some other tumblrs even wished the opposite—that they had time to just themselves, but didn’t have that time on their hands. I just found it so intriguing to see that people responded in a variety of ways to my posts other than just a like or reblog. It showed me that people have a lot of perspectives on the same thing. Having that variety of perspectives is not necessarily a bad thing—it helped open my eyes and see how people might view specific things. I can take all of those perspectives into account regarding my own writing, and be more thoughtful of others as a result. What I post or reblog online, whether it be a suggestion of self-care or a statement of positivity, can reflect what my own views are and what other views I agree or disagree with.
Overall, I think this month-long challenge helped me to take a step back and see how one or two posts can seriously affect people, whether those things be positive or negative. Taking on the challenge also helped me destress a bit, especially with seeing all the reblogs and likes. I’m glad that everyone that liked or reblogged my posts enjoyed what I wrote. If this challenge came up again this year, I’d be happy to participate in it again.