Areas of Self-Care
Did you know there are different areas of self-care you can focus on? If your intention to lead a truly happier and healthier life, it’s a good idea to target varied possibilities of self-care that you include in your routines. Here, we’ll look at the different areas of self-care, alongside tips to help you improve in each area.
1. Emotional self-care
Emotional self-care can help you lead a much happier life. One of the fundamental challenges for most people is controlling their emotions. Without being in control, you can quickly find they take over, affecting your relationships. The good news is it is possible to get more in tune with your emotions. Emotional self-care focuses on activities which help you connect, reflect, and process your emotions.
Here are some tips for emotional self-care:
· Learn to become more self-aware: By becoming more aware of your emotions, you’ll find it easier to control them. Start a journal and write the emotions you experience throughout the day. Discuss what you felt, what time it was, and what triggered the emotion. This helps any patterns in your emotions and the triggers you should avoid.
· Practice mindfulness: Mindfulness is a popular form of self-care. It helps you to focus on the present, calming the mind and body. By practicing mindfulness, it helps you to better regulate your emotions. You’ll use it to control your emotions when needed. For example, if you felt overly anxious, you can calm the mind by taking deep, mindful breaths.
· Talk to a therapist: It may be some self-talk needed to walk through any issues you are experiencing with a therapist. Emotions can be powerful and difficult to control; especially when it deals with mental illness. By talking things through with a professional, they can help to give you a new perspective, and help you better understand and control your emotions.
· Listen to music: Music can have a powerful effect on our emotions. It has an instant effect, helping you to feel happier, energized, relaxed or sad depending upon the type you listen to. Listening to music help control and calm your emotions when needed. When you need a burst of happiness, throw on your favorite music. Or, to relax the mind, listen to instrumental music.
2. Physical self-care
Physical self-care relates to activities which help to improve your physical health. It could involve losing weight, making healthier lifestyle choices, and getting fitter. The healthier the body is, it minimized the risk of developing an illness or disease.
Here are some tips for physical self-care:
· Drink more water – It’s important to stay hydrated throughout the day. Without adequate water intake, the organs of the body won’t function correctly. So, start by increasing your intake of water daily.
· Go for a walk – Staying active is crucial for peak physical health. However, you don’t have to spend hours in the gym. Getting out for a pleasant walk invigorates both your physical and your mental health.
· Try Zumba – The point of physical self-care is to do something you enjoy. So, if your intention is to shed some weight and improve your fitness, why not try a Zumba class? This is a fun, popular workout activity that can burn a lot of calories in one session.
· Eat more home-cooked meals–A fabulous way to look after your physical health is to eat more home-cooked meals. Skip the takeout’s and prepare your own meals packed full of vegetables.
· Increase your fruit intake – To stay in great physical shape, the body needs plenty of nutrients. Increase your fruit intake by swapping them with unhealthy snacks.
3. Practical self-care
Practical self-care relates to tasks which fulfill the core aspects of your life. It is about avoiding potentially stressful situations in the future. Your finances, career, and home organization skills fit into this area.
Here are tips to consider for practical self-care:
· Create and follow a budget–To help get to grips with your finances.
· Open a savings account – Saving towards the future is a great self-care goal. So, if you don’t already have one, open a new savings account.
· Take a professional development course – Progressing in your career can open more opportunities and make you happier.
· Organize your closet – Sell or donate any clothing you lost interest with and organize your closet space. It might surprise you how beneficial this can be for the mind.
4. Mental self-care
One of the most common areas of self-care that most people want to improve is mental self-care. This relates to activities which help to clear the mind and boost the mood. Mental health issues are especially prevalent in society, so figuring out ways to improve your mental state is crucial.
Here are some mental self-care tips you can use as an example:
· Read a book – Reading a book can help distract the mind. It is a relaxing activity that can help you momentarily escape into another world. You could also read self-help books to boost your self-care efforts.
· Take a day trip – Sometimes it can really help to just get away from everything for a few hours. Take a day trip somewhere new and see just how much better you feel when you return home.
· Solve puzzles – Another great distraction from self-care tip is to solve puzzles. This can really help to boost mental focus too, helping to prevent conditions such as Dementia in later life.
· Start a gratitude journal – A gratitude journal has wonderful effects on your mental health. It trains the brain to become more positive. Writing in a gratitude journal for 21 days can have a significant impact on your mental well-being.
5. Social self-care
Social self-care focuses on nurturing your relationships. Healthy friendships are crucial to our well-being. There have been many studies which have revealed the importance of good social connections in terms of our health and well-being. So, what type of self-care tasks can you used to improve these social connections?
Here’s some social self-care activities you can try:
· Make time to call family – Set a regular time to call family to catch up. It could call your mom once a week or giving your grandfather a call. Maintaining family connections is very important.
· Set up a lunch date with friends – If you need to spend more time with friends, start by setting up a lunch date. This gives you a great opportunity to catch up.
· Join a new local class – If you need to make new friends, joining a local class can help. It could be a local exercise class, or a hobby such as painting or dancing.
6. Spiritual self-care
Finally, spiritual self-care helps you identify and connect to your inner self in a better way. It doesn’t have to be religious, although for some people, that is the major focus of their spiritual self-care.
Here are tips to consider for spiritual self-care activities you can follow:
· Meditation – Taking just 10 minutes out of each day to meditate can help you better connect to your inner self.
· Attend church – If you are religious, going to church regularly can help you feel more aligned with who you really are. It will also help to strengthen your relationship with God.
· Self-reflection – Practicing self-reflection can help you understand who you are and what matters to you. You’ll identify any areas you need to improve on.
These are the six key areas of self-care you’ll want to focus on. The key to mastering self-care helps boost self-esteem, becomes more self-aware and to focus on self-respect.
Keeping the Momentum Going Long Term
Now that you’ve got your self-care routine set up, one thing you might struggle with is keeping it up. It’s important to keep the momentum going long term if your intention is to nurture the changes you’ve made. So, how can you keep the momentum going? Here, we’ll look at some of the best ways to keep on track.
Remind yourself of the purpose you are doing making these changes. Over time, it’s easy to forget why you started changing your life. When you forget why you started, it can lead to a loss of motivation to keep going. This is especially true when you encounter obstacles along the way. It’s much easier to slack off your self-care journey when you’ve lost focus of your goals. It’s a good idea to prod yourself into why you are relentless in self-care. Think of the benefits resulting from the changes you make. When you remember why your intention to change, it can push you to carry on.
Continue to Create Small Goals
Goal setting is crucial to success for creating new habits. If you want to keep drive going, you’re going to need to continue to set small goals for yourself. When you have goals to work towards in self-care, it keeps you motivated to achieve them. Of course, the key here is to make sure the goals are small and achievable. As you complete each goal, you’ll gain momentum to carry on. Reflect on your progress Finally, reflecting on the progress you’ve made can also keep momentum going. Look at how far you have come since you started. Write about the improvements you’ve experienced already. Then, think about the ways you will further benefit when you continue your self-care journey.
These are some of the best ways to instill motivation and keep up the drive as you work on self-care. Now that you’ve learnt everything there is to know about self-care and its importance in our lives, it’s time to create a plan. Follow the advice featured above to help make self-care easier to fit into your life.