How often do you forget to practice self-care?
You’ve got a list as long as your arm of all the things you have to do and you find work extremely overwhelming. To make time for everything you take shorter breaks, skip meals and have minimal to no social interactions. Leaving you stressed and overwhelmed by your countless responsibilities.
We often don’t think twice before putting self-care on the back burner but then we feel the mighty force of physical and emotional exhaustion, AKA BURNOUT. 😫
Self-care is crucial for Your physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. So, let’s look at some simple ways to practice self-care.
What is Self-care?
Self-Care is a broad term that essentially involves just about anything you do that makes you feel good about yourself externally and internally.
However, it’s important to know that not everything that feels good is self-care. Such as excessively eating unhealthy food, drugs, smoking and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, which can sometimes be used as coping mechanisms.
These are self-destructive activities that create challenging emotions and are really a temporary relief of happiness.
When practiced correctly self-care has long-term benefits for both the mind and the body.
Self-care is just a few basic habits that are important for you to function. We all know that working smart + hard is crucial for success, but if you’re laying in a hospital bed or sitting in a doctor’s office because you’re burnt out and have ruined your health what is the point of it all? 🤨
Self-care isn’t a reward you give yourself after completing a mammoth task nor should you classify it as just painting your toenails once every blue moon.
Include some forms of self-care in your daily routine and include the ones that could take some planning (vacation/ spa weekend etc) in your personal monthly goals.
Emotional Self-Care
Self-care isn’t just about doing something physical. Learning to handle stress, anxiety and sadness can be helped by taking time away to process your feelings.
A lot of our emotions are to do with situations, experiences and memories that happened in the past that are being projected into the present.
We should still gently lean toward them (instead of repressing and suppressing it) so that we can allow them to come to the surface and deal with it appropriately.
What exactly are you feeling? What made you feel this way? What steps can you take right now to make yourself feel better?
Here are 10 ways to start incorporating emotional self-care into your daily routine starting today:
1. Learn to identify what triggers your emotions, then identify the different ways to consciously respond to those triggers without causing harm to yourself or others.
2. Call on others to help you when you feel overwhelmed. Whether that means offloading some of the tasks you’ve got to do or for just a stroll to a café to talk about your feelings.
3. Set boundaries for yourself and for others and stick to them.
4. Allow yourself to make mistakes.
5. Accept compliments without push back, just say a simple “Thank you”.
6. Be more aware of how you speak to yourself, your inner critic is not the true wisdom within you.
7. Give yourself three compliments each morning. Start your day off by working towards a positive self-image.
8. Identify activities that you enjoy and schedule them into your day.
9. Give yourself permission to feel your emotions, especially if they’re painful.
10. Learn to say No and serve yourself first.
Simple ways to practice self-care for your mind, body and soul
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I can’t stress enough how important it is that your self-care routine is specifically tailored to you and you alone. The things that rejuvenate you are going to be unique to your preferences and circumstances.
This means that you will have to go on your own journey of self-discovery to understand what self-care means to you and how you can get the most out of it.
Doing this can be one of the most rewarding, exciting and enjoyable experiences of your life, as you get to learn more about yourself as an individual and the healthy coping mechanisms needed to help you function through difficult times.
Don’t know where to start? Here are a few suggestions for self-care that addresses your mind, body and soul.
Mind
🧠 Keep a daily journal and offset your feelings
🧠 Schedule days where you do nothing at all and relax
🧠 Practice meditation
🧠 Find your creative outlet
🧠 Encourage yourself to laugh at old memories or funny videos
Body
💪 Exercise
💪 Get enough sleep. Adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep a night to function at their best.
💪 Eat healthily
💪 Wear an outfit that makes you feel amazing
💪 Get a massage or other spa treatment
Soul
🧘🏽♀️Let go of the negative people around you
🧘🏽♀️ Take yourself out on a date (Splurge a little)
🧘🏽♀️ Make time for the things that bring you joy daily
🧘🏽♀️ Practice self-reflection
🧘🏽♀️ Make time for therapeutic activities (E.g. getting into nature, listening to music)
“Take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live”
Jim Rohn
If you incorporate any of the self-care tips mentioned in this blog into your daily routine, you are definitely on the right track to improving your life.
You’ll feel more connected to yourself and the world around you. You’ll find yourself taking pleasure in your small wins in life and nothing will seem as difficult as it was before.
Thanks for reading my simple ways to practice self-care! What self-care habits would you like to form?
Pin this post for a reminder 📌 👇
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Really glad you covered emotional self care, I feel like it’s so often overlooked.
Well written and easy to digest piece making the subject of sef-care easier to understand. I agree with emily, emotional self-care is the over looked element, bringing light onto this is really helpful.