Self-Care
What Is Self-Care?
Self-care is the practice of deliberately doing things that protect or improve your own mental or physical health. Nowadays, when people talk about self-care they are talking about the conscious & deliberate choice to do something for yourself & that helps you look after you & your wellbeing.
Areas of Self-Care
Physical
Eating healthy, taking enjoyable exercise, pampering, spa day or having a haircut.
Emotional
Feeling your feelings without judging yourself for feeling the feelings you feel! (lots of Fs in that one). This can be particularly hard at first, but what you practice becomes more normal & you will become better at it.
Things like finding things that make you laugh, look in the mirror & compliment yourself, allowing yourself to cry when you feel sad, spending time with loved ones & re-reading your favourite book, or endlessly watching your favourite box set.
Psychological
This one is probably the easiest one to neglect & the one that we feel more obligated to ignore, usually due to juggling busy lives & the quintessentially British stiff upper lip.
Understanding that its OK to say “No” to things you don’t have to do, or to extra responsibilities that you have no room for. Putting margins back in your life, buffers that create space for you to relax & enjoy life.
Engaging your curiosity can breathe new life & ideas actually helps to fight against depression. So maybe do a short course that involves your hobby, go to some museums, read to learn, or watch a documentary. Practice receiving compliments WELL from others, make time & space for self-reflection & pay attention to your inner thoughts, feelings & attitudes.
Spirituality
Spiritual self-care is getting in touch with your inner human spirit & soul, if you start thinking along the lines off the things that make you human & what makes you & others an amazing human. So things like donating to a charity, it doesn’t have to be much even if its 50 pence a month, it’s not the amount it’s the action of giving. You could volunteer at a homeless shelter once a month or do a charity fun run.
Spend some time in nature, listen to the birds tweeting or go and sit next to a waterfall. Watch some inspirational videos online of humans overcoming phenomenal odds & be inspired by them. Also, meditation & or prayer can help to create a stillness to connect with yourself.
Professional
Take time to chat with co-workers/peers, jazzing up your workspace to your taste can bring a lightness to the area. Balancing your workload in a healthy way throughout your day, take breaks when you need or don’t work ridiculous hours & if you need to limit it as much as possible. If you don’t like your job, can you change it?