Self-care is a popular topic these days, but it is often poorly explained. Perhaps you keep seeing it mentioned in self-help books or magazine articles and yet don’t have a clear sense of how you’re supposed to add it to your life.
It may seem wishy-washy or vague to you. Alternatively, maybe you aren’t convinced that you should practice regular self-care.
Maybe you think your resources are better saved for working and for looking after others.
So, what is self-care, and why is it so important? As it turns out, there are many different self-care practices, and not all of them suit everyone.
This guide will take you through the reasons why you need at least some sort of self-care in your routine, and will help you understand the specific changes you need to make.
Self-care is a broad term that encompasses just about anything you do to be good to yourself. In a nutshell, it’s about being as kind to yourself as you would be to others.
It’s partly about knowing when your resources are running low and stepping back to replenish them rather than letting them all drain away.
Meanwhile, it also involves integrating self-compassion into your life in a way that helps to prevent even the possibility of burnout.
However, it’s important to note that not everything that feels good is self-care. We can all be tempted to use unhealthy coping mechanisms like drugs, alcohol, over-eating, and risk-taking. These self-destructive activities help us to regulate challenging emotions, but the relief is temporary.
The difference between unhealthy coping mechanisms and self-care activities is that the latter is uncontroversially good for you. When practiced correctly, self-care has long-term benefits for the mind, the body, or both.
With a self-care definition on the table, we can now turn to look at what happens to us when we add it to our lives. So, why is self-care important?
As hinted above, there are many benefits of self-care. The most obvious relates to mood and energy levels. However, as it turns out, research shows wider-ranging benefits as well.
One of the main excuses people make for ignoring articles about self-care is that they just don’t have time. The great news is that there are many different self-care practices, and none of them are especially difficult or require a lot of planning. The trick is to find some that you genuinely enjoy and that fit with your life and values. Once you start adding emotional self-care to your life, you’re likely to become fiercely protective of that time and wonder how you ever managed without it!
Here are the five main categories of self-care, along with explanations of how they help you. We’ll also look at specific self-care examples within categories, which should get you thinking about activities you’ll particularly like.
1. SensorySensory self-care is all about helping to calm your mind.
When you are able to tune into the details of the sensations all around you, it’s easier to live in the present moment. And when you’re in the present, you can more effectively let go of resentments related to the past or anxieties about the future.
When you think about practicing sensory self-care, consider all of your senses: touch, smell, sound, and sight.
Most people are more responsive to one than the others, so ask yourself what that sense might be for you.
The following examples of sensory self-care involve at least one sense, but often more.
2. EmotionalWhen it comes to your emotional health, one of the best self-care tips is to make sure you fully engage with your emotions. When you face them head-on, this actually helps with stress.
You may feel tempted to push down feelings like sadness or anger, but it’s healthy to feel them, accept them, and move on.
Remember that emotions are not “good” or “bad” in themselves. You are not blameworthy for the emotions you feel; only how you behave in response to them.
On this theme, consider any one or more of the following if you want to practice better emotional self-care…
3. SpiritualIf you’re not religious, you might be tempted to skim-read this section or skip it altogether.
However, spiritual self-care isn’t just about believing in a deity. It’s applicable to atheists and agonistics as much as to religious people.
Spiritual self-care is about getting in touch with your values and what really matters to you.
Self-care tips for depression often stress that developing a sense of purpose is vital to your recovery. Below are some versatile examples that can help you with this.
4. PhysicalThe importance of self-care definitely extends to purely physical aspects of your health. Physical activity is vital not only for your bodily well-being but also for helping you let off steam.
You might think there’s nothing fun or self-compassionate about going to the gym, but that’s far too narrow a way of thinking about physical self-care. Instead, broaden the concept by thinking about the following lists.
In addition, remember that physical self-care is as much about the things you don’t do as the things you do! So:
5. SocialFinally, social self-care is another category that’s important for us all.
It might look different depending on whether you’re an introvert or extrovert. However, connecting with other people is necessary for happiness for a large diversity of people.
It helps you to understand that you’re not alone. Plus, it can also give us a sense of being fully “seen” by others. This can, in particular, help us combat loneliness and isolation.
Social self-care isn’t about just doing things with others for the sake of it, but about choosing to do things with people who really make you feel good.
