Self-care is hard work. Actively caring for yourself involves breaking bad habits, recognizing patterns and pushing your boundaries so as to glow inside as well as out.
Let us take you on a trip through how to actively engage in self-care: Physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and social aspects of yourself that need to be healthy so that you can be healthy and all-rounded.
Mental
Actively taking care of your mental health does not only mean taking mental health breaks, but also involves doing things that stimulate your intellect and force you to learn and think so that your brain serves you in achieving your goals.
1.Reading
Knowledge is power and knowledge is found in books. To effectively read to expand your mind you will need to be careful what you read. You can start by reading non-fiction books on the topics and fields that interest you, then widen your spectrum with time.
2.Taking Online Courses
Take them on whatever you want to learn, it does not have to be in line with what you do at work – diversify your skill set and learn things you always wanted to. There are various platforms with short and affordable courses on anything you can imagine and you can do them from anywhere. All you will need is time, a device and good Wi-Fi.
3. Consider Getting A Mentor
This is someone who you admire because they have excelled in something important to you – meeting them once or twice a month to get advice from them concerning your career or habits could prove such a good step in the right direction.
Emotional
These activities help you to healthily deal with all your different emotions by processing and reflecting on them so that even the negative ones do not affect your personal growth. Some of them include:
Seeing a therapist/professional: These professionals are helpful because they allow you to freely talk about problems you wouldn’t tell other people and they teach you how to express and manage your emotions in a healthy way as well as help you help yourself to stop engaging in self-destructive behaviors.
Journaling: This is how you take charge of your emotional wellbeing. Journaling your emotions daily helps you to recognize patterns in your behavior, prioritize issues based on how often they arise and identify what triggers you. This helps you figure out how to control your negative emotions.
Saying positive affirmations: Being kind to yourself is imperative. Speaking to yourself positively increases self-esteem and boosts your confidence all round to help you perform your daily tasks with utter ease. You can say these things in front of a mirror, write them in a journal or put them on sticky notes in your room or workstation.
Practical
These are things that you do to ensure the easy functioning and mobility of key aspects of your life. It involves organizing and creating systems that help you perform your day to day functions and achieve your long-term goals in a way that prevents stress and anxiety. You can do this by:
Organizing/maintaining an organized working and living space: By doing this, you will be more enticed to work and you will do it more efficiently because it will be systemic and organization aids in better focusing. A neat living space helps you relax; relaxation is good for your mental health.
Budgeting: Haphazard financing will cause you a lot of stress as well as cause financial problems. Sit down and manage what you do with your money because it will help you achieve your goals e.g. buying a house or new phone. It will also aid you in curtailing the need to spend money unnecessarily.
Make long-term plans: Whether it’s for your career, relationship, schooling or anything else always ask yourself what you want to achieve in five years, ten, twenty… visualize it and plan for it. This will keep you grounded and give you purpose, which will fulfill you and make you happy. Be sure of what you want and work every day to be the person who has it.
Physical
Physical self-care entails taking care of their body. This means hydrating, watching what you eat, getting enough sleep, taking vitamins, practicing general hygiene and anything that involves keeping your body healthy so that it can help you achieve your goals. It also includes taking care of your hair, skin and nails.
Some active forms of physical self-care that you may not already know include:
1. Exercising 3-5 times per week: It is best to start with 15 minutes every other day if you don’t work out. This will help you get into the habit of it and you can increase the intensity from there. It will make you happier, more proactive and healthy.
2. Going to the doctor: The doctor is not reserved for people who are sick. It is important to regularly go for check-ups to different kinds of practitioners. General doctors, dentists, gynecologists, urologists etc. You know your body and your ailments so be on top of them by tailoring your self-care around the illnesses to which you are prone.
3. Eating healthy: There are no one size fits all with healthy eating because we all need different things but we advise that you take time to learn those things about yourself and always eat a diverse selection of fruits and vegetables.
Social
This is what you do to ensure the relationships you keep are serving you in the way that they should and that you are serving those you care about in the same way. This involves making time to strengthen healthy relationships in your life by texting, calling or meeting up with your loved ones and finding strength to end the toxic ones. You will be able to strike the difference by evaluating how people make you feel and influence your thinking by journaling, meditation and counselling. It also involves putting yourself out there to meet new people and form more relationships. Go out, talk to strangers (but be safe) and engage with other human beings – it will help you see the world from many other perspectives.
Spiritual
This does not necessarily mean that you have to subscribe to a certain religion rather, you should try to connect with something bigger than yourself and think beyond the world around you. Every person has a spirit and every spirit, just like your body and mind, needs to be nourished. You can do this by trying activities like yoga that help you integrate your mind, body and soul. Going to places of worship if you have any, meditating to help you connect with yourself and interacting with nature and appreciating it.
As you can see, self-care does not always involve winding down. Often times, there must be something to wind down from. Pick up a few of these life hacks and who knows, they could be instrumental in you becoming the best version of yourself.
