“Self-care is not selfish; prioritizing our own well-being is what allows us to care for others. If we are not okay, we can’t help those around us be okay.”

–Mary Kathryn Nader, Ph.D., LPC-S, PMH-C

Hope Counseling & Consulting, PLLC

What is Self-Care?

Self-care is taking care of yourself in a way that is restorative to your being and supportive of your needs. Self-care describes the act of taking thoughtful actions to preserve and expand your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Self-care is crucial to total well-being. 

Why is Self-Care Important?

We live in a world where people are anticipated to work long hours and pass on their earned vacation days. There persists a belief we must always be productive, which doesn’t leave space for self-care. By taking the time out to practice of self-care, you will likely find the pressures of life are relieved. You could reset yourself to a place where you can be more productive. Skipping self-care can come with costs such as burnout, depression, anxiety, and resentment. Lack of self-care can leave you feeling empty, lonely, unfulfilled and useless. These feelings can ultimately affect your self-esteem as well. 

Practicing a self-care routine has been clinically proven to decrease or eliminate anxiety and depression, diminish stress, enrich concentration, lessen frustration and anger, enhance happiness, increase energy and more. Implementing self-care practices, such as regular exercise, healthy eating, and stress management techniques, reduces the risk of heart attack, stroke, and obesity in the future. ¹  

What are Some Self-Care Activities?

Self-care looks different for everyone. Here are some typical self-care activities:

• Exercise – It is important to get daily regular exercise, ideally at least 30 minutes per day. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t do 30 minutes per day at first; just keep moving toward your goal. Remember even small amounts of exercise have a positive impact.
• Food and Hydration – Eating healthy and staying hydrated is another act of self-care. Eating well balanced, nutritious meals increase your health and energy. Drinking plenty of water, at least 64 ounces per day, can boost your energy as well.
• Sleep – Make sleep a priority. Set a schedule to ensure you get enough sleep. Turn off all devices before bed time to reduce interruptions to your sleep. Sleep is vital to your overall health today, and sleep is how we recharge for the next day. 
• Relaxing activity – Try something new or revisit a previous activity you found relaxing. Meditation, mindfulness, breathing exercises, muscle relaxation, listening to music, reading or walking in nature could be rewarding.

• Stimulating activities – Engage in activities that challenge and stimulate your mind like reading, trivia, puzzles or learning a new skill.
• List building – Prevent your “to-do-list” from playing bumper cars in your head. Make a list of the things you need to accomplish and then put the items in an order of importance. This is vital to your success as it sharpens your ability to decline any additional responsibilities; avoid overextending yourself. At the end of each day review what you accomplished and appreciate yourself your effort and focus.
• Therapy – Seeking professional help to assist with your mental health concerns and develop coping strategies is advantageous. 
• Gratitude – Reflect on your day, your week or year and remind yourself of all the things for which you are grateful. This focuses you on the good things you experienced throughout your day, week or year. If you are looking for positive you will find it; if you are ruminating or looking for negative, you will find it.  Notice the negative and release; take the time to notice negative thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts. Attempt to find the good or what you could learn from any situation. Challenge yourself to flip negative thoughts to positive thoughts. 
• Support system – Build healthy relationships with those supportive friends, family and colleagues in your life. Be open to creating new relationships. It is important to maintain communication with your family and friends that make up your support system. Contact them and share the positive things as well as your struggles. Reach out to them just to see how they are doing. 
• Spirituality – Share in spiritual activities which provide a sense of peace and grounding; this can be calming and refreshing. Participating in happenings which reflect and support your values and provide a feeling of accomplishment can impact the way you feel about yourself.
• Routine – Have a routine for starting and ending your work day. Whether that’s a prayer or affirmation you say as you put on your name badge or enter your office, or a ritual of changing clothes after returning home or after you clock out in your home office. Signaling to your body you have started and then ended your workday allows space for rest and relaxation.
• Hobby – Invest in a hobby. This can be anything from gardening to sports to mahjong. Whatever it is that allows you a mental break from your daily life. If you primarily sit in your career, anything that involves full body movement is great. If you are always moving during your work day, a sitting hobby might be a nice break.
• Involvement – Find a group in which to get involved that is totally outside of your career. This can be a place where no one knows you as “the therapist” or “the doctor” or “the manager” or the “parent” but just as you. Faith organizations, volunteer groups, or recreational sports teams can be great places to start.

How do I Develop a Self-Care Plan?

A useful self-care plan is one that is created with you and your needs in mind. Creating your own self-care routine allows for a better fit and ideally avoid feelings of overwhelm or burnout. Reflect on your life often. As your situation changes, your self-care routine would likely need to adjust.

As you are building your self-care routine, these tips can be useful: 

1. Needs Assessment: Make a list of the various aspects of your life and the activities in which you are involved. Work, school and family are some of the main areas reflected on the list. 
2. Study your stressors: Considering the above areas, reflect on the aspects of these areas that cause stress. Then make a list of the activities you would want to participate in that might address stress.
3. Schedule Self-Care: Take the activities you came up with in the previous step and schedule them in where ever you have time and would be open to doing such activity. Always make self-care a priority. 
4. Chart for Challenges: If you find you’re overlooking a certain aspect of your self-care, create a plan to address it. 
5. Success Through Small Steps: Keep in mind most people don’t attack everything all together. You can find one small step you can take to begin your self-care journey. You just keep taking those small steps until you meet your goals. 

Self-care is imperative. Use this as a guide to assist you in your journey for balance. Continue taking steps, no matter how small, toward your goals. You will benefit from the things you do for self-care. There are multiple ways to practice self-care and it is often very personal. The important thing is to have self-care strategies you can refer to and use to prevent and manage the stress and the overall enjoyment of life. If you’re very busy try to find even small ways to involve self-care activities. Additionally, consider reframing how you think about your stresses as even that discernment process can be helpful.

When Self-Care Isn’t Enough… 

Santé Center for Healing provides integrity-driven, evidence-based, and personalized long-term recovery customized for those suffering from substance use disorders, mental health, trauma, compulsive sexual behavior disorder, disordered eating and other compulsive behaviors. Founded in 1996, Santé’s mission is to provide long-term recovery because left untreated, addiction is a fatal disease.  

 

 

 

Sources

1. Riegel B, Moser DK, Buck HG, et al. American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease; and Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research. Self-Care for the Prevention and Management of Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke: A Scientific Statement for Healthcare Professionals From the American Heart Association. J Am Heart Assoc. 2017 Aug 31;6(9):e006997. doi:10.1161/JAHA.117.006997

 

Image by Alexandr.

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