What do you do to take care of yourself?
What do you do to show yourself love?
Crickets?
Our mental health and overall sanity depends on our self care.
Most of us are so used to taking care of everybody else in our life that we forget about taking care of ourselves. This is a huge mistake and a perfect way to sabotage our own wellbeing. It’s important to remember, if we’re not okay it’s harder for everyone else to be okay and we can’t give what we don’t have. We all only have so much kindness, compassion, tolerance and patience within us. Once this is depleted we can become moody, stressed, frustrated and reactive. We often push ourselves beyond our emotional capabilities to take care of others. However, when we do this, we can often end up making matters worse by being in a bad mood or having a poor attitude. We also leave ourselves vulnerable to physical and mental illness. To prevent this we must replenish our mind, body and spirit through our self-care. Although we believe at times we don’t have time to take care of ourselves or that it’s selfish, this is just not true. We can be much more helpful to others when we are fulfilled within ourselves. We’ll be much more effective if we take a few minutes or even a few hours out of our day to replenish our wellbeing and then offer help than we would be to push ourselves, knowing we are already physically and emotionally exhausted.
Self-care can look differently for each of us and can include anything that brings us peace, calm, relaxation, joy, excitement, safety, laughter, etc… It’s important to have activities for any and all situations. Some can last only a minute like doing a quick breathing exercise. Others can last about an hour such as a workout. While some can last several days like a vacation. Ideally, we should engage in self-care activities daily. Here’s how to make sure you meet your self-care goals.
Make a list of self-care activities that you can do just about anywhere daily in just a few minutes:
Breathing techniques
Meditation
Listening to music
Cuddling with your pet
Talking to a friend
Journaling
Going for a walk
Watching the sunset
Walking your dog
Stretching
Positive self-talk
Make a list of self-care activities that take about an hour and pick one to do each week or month:
Taking a bath
Meeting a loved one for lunch
Working out
Getting a spa treatment like a massage or facial
Getting a manicure or pedicure
Cooking
Cleaning
Participating in therapy
Yoga
Sound healing
Reiki
Reading
Gardening
Taking a nap
Self-care doesn’t always have to mean adding something positive to our life. It can also mean avoiding something negative. If at all possible avoid or limit people, activities and situations that cause you stress. This can include:
Watching the news
Being on social media
Being around certain people
Taking on too many obligations
Having too many expectations
Practicing good self-care means you are valuing and loving yourself. Ultimately, the most valued love is the love we give ourselves because no one can ever take that away.