The last few weeks we have spoken about managing and prioritising time. Most people think about their work or household tasks or things they need to do for others. But, as we touched on last week, it’s also important to make time for the things you want to do for yourself, including self-care.
Self-care is an important part of our health and wellbeing and practising self-care ensures we are taking care of both our physical and mental health. There are so many ways to practise self-care but it’s all about doing what makes you feel happy and helps with stress and challenging times, this can even include creating and building strong social connections. Check out our blog post, ConnectWell with Community for more ideas to build your own networks.
There are lots of benefits that come with self-care including helping with stress and anxiety, improving your mood and self-esteem, increasing your energy, avoiding burnout and building your relationships and connections.
Self-care can also make you more effective because it adds balance to your life. By allowing your body to get the food, rest and activity it needs, you have more energy to meet the challenges of daily routines. So just by adding a little more of what makes you happy and keeps you healthy, you can become more productive and more resilient to stressors.
We spoke to Marie Vakakis from The Therapy Hub about self-care and she says self-care helps to complete the stress cycle. After experiencing stress it's important to help your body and mind end the cycle. Stretch your muscles, take some deep breaths or go for a walk to relax and reset. Watch her full self-care session here.
Just like taking deep breaths and stretching, self-care activities don’t always have to be extra things added to your to-do list or take up chunks of time either. Small things like brushing your teeth, getting enough sleep, moving your body and eating well all count towards your self-care! Spending even five minutes a day on yourself can have a big, positive impact.
A good way to look at what a self-care activity can be is to focus on one of these five areas: sleep, nutrition, movement, connection and fun. Some self-care ideas you could try out are drinking a glass of water, stepping outside for some fresh air, listening, watching or reading something, lighting a candle, talking to a friend, cooking your favourite meal or writing in a journal. Marie Vakakis even has a self-esteem journal to help with your reflections and if you’re feeling stuck on where to start check out a previous Journal Writing session with Ingrid Jones. A useful resource to help you plan your self-care is this self-care plan template and get more self-care ideas here.
Another important element of self-care is setting boundaries. This may lead to disappointing someone, so remember to stay confident about what you need. We discussed boundaries and saying ‘no’ when you need to in our blog post Prioritising Time. Read more about it here.
Self-care helps with your overall health and wellbeing so making time for even just a little bit of it every day is important. It may sound selfish or even feel that way when you first start but caring for yourself helps you show up for the other people and other things in your life.