Deciding to heal from past experiences or finally deciding to care for your basic needs first before putting everyone else first, is a big step. Self care is vital for building resilience toward life's stressors that you have no control over or can't change. When you've taken the time and made steps to care for your mind and body, and spirit, you'll be better equipped to bear and tolerate normal amounts of healthy stress and can push yourself when you are ready for other challenges. Self care should be seen as a priority, not a luxury, so you are not left feeling overwhelmed, tired, or burnt out.
It's essential to assess how you care for yourself; it isn't just about finding ways to relax or stay calm. It's about taking care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually so you can find relief and restore balance within yourself and continue to take charge of your life. All the stress relief activities in the world won't help if you aren't taking care of yourself. There are many forms of self care. It can be making sure to get enough sleep every night or something simple like recognizing that you must step outside for a few minutes for fresh air.
An effective self care routine has been shown to have several essential health benefits.Some of these include:
● Reducing anxiety and depression
● Reducing stress and improving resilience
● Improving contentment
● Increasing energy
● Reducing burnout
Self care doesn’t mean just to find ways for relaxation. It is also about how to take care of yourself mentally, emotionally, spiritually and socially. In order to make sure that you take care of your health right and ensure better health and well-being, it becomes quite important to find the balance which can allow one to find the balance for addressing every single area discussed below. At times you might be in need of much more self-care in a specific area for restoring balance or finding the relief from the life stressors.
One needs to take care of the body in order to run efficiently. Know that if there is a better connection in between the mind and body, only then can you feel better too. Now, physical self care includes the way you are trying to fuel up your body or the amount of time you sleep or even the physical activities you have been doing and alike.
When it comes to having better physical self care, ask yourself the following questions to assess whether there might be some areas you need to improve:
● Are you getting adequate sleep?
● Is your diet fueling your body well?
● Are you taking charge of your health?
● Are you getting enough exercise?
Socialization is one important key towards self-care. However, it becomes quite difficult to find time for the friends, and it is very easy to neglect on the relationships when life seems to get too busy.
Do not forget that your social connections are very important for your personal well-being. One best way for cultivating and ensuring to maintain a close relationship will be to put an amount of time and the energy into building up of relationships with the other people.
Now, there isn’t any number of hours you are required to dedicate to work, relationships or friends. The key here is to find what the social needs are and to build up enough time within the schedule for creating the optimal amount of social life.
To assess your social self-care, consider the following:
● Are you getting enough face-to-face time with your friends?
● What are you doing to nurture your relationships with friends and family?
The thoughts that fill up the mind, and the way one thinks influences the psychological well-being. Know that mental self-care does include some things that can help you in keeping mind sharp. Now it can be playing puzzles or learning about a certain subject which you are fascinated with.
Mental self-care also includes things that can help you stay healthy mentally. To practice, self-compassion and the required of acceptance is also a great means to maintain the inner dialogue that is healthier.
Here are a couple of questions to consider when you think about your mental self-care:
● Are you making enough time for activities that mentally stimulate you?
● Are you doing proactive things to help you stay mentally healthy?
According to the research, a lifestyle that includes spirituality or religion is a healthy lifestyle. Now, to nurture the spirit doesn’t mean religion. It can be anything which can help you in developing the deeper sense of the meaning, a connection with the universe or having a better understanding.
No matter whether you do meditation, prayer, or religious service, spiritual self-care, it is truly very important.
As you consider your spiritual life, ask yourself.
● What questions do you ask yourself about your life and experience?
● Are you engaging in spiritual practices that you find fulfilling?
To have healthy coping skills when trying to deal with certain uncomfortable emotions like anxiety, anger, and sadness is important. The process of emotional self-care might include any kind of activities that can help one acknowledge and also express feelings safely and regularly.
No matter you talk to your partner or any close friend about how you are feeling, or you try to set aside some time for leisure activities that can help you process the emotions, it is very important to incorporate the emotional self-care within life.
When assessing your emotional self care strategies, consider these questions:
● Do you have healthy ways to process your emotions?
● Do you incorporate activities into your life that help you feel recharged?
Follow these simple steps to help you build your customised self care plan:
Assess your needs: Make a list of the different parts of your life and significant activities you engage in daily. For example, some of you might list work, school, relationships, and family.
Consider your stressors:Point out the aspects of all the areas that cause stress and consider some ways you might address that stress.
Devise self-care strategies: Think about some activities that you can do that will help you feel better in each of these areas of your life. Spending time with friends or developing boundaries, for example, can be a way to build healthy social connections.
Take small steps: You don't have to tackle everything all at once. Instead, identify one small step you can take to begin caring for yourself better.
Schedule time to focus on your needs: Make self-care a priority even when you don't have time to squeeze in one more thing. When caring for all aspects of yourself, you'll find that you can operate more effectively and efficiently.
