Doing Self-care activities are essential to your overall well-being. They reenergize your batteries, bring joy to everyday life, and prevent destructive behaviors where you are overly are self-critical. There are a lot of self-care ideas on the internet. Here we will be exploring what self-care is, the benefits, how to create your unique self-care plan, and some inspiration to get the ball rolling.
Because sometimes self-care can feel just like the comic below.
What is Self-Care? And Why We Don’t Do It
Psychcentral defines self-care as, “any activity that we do deliberately to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.”
Self-care activities are easy in theory, but incorporating them into our daily life can be a challenge.
We all live unique and busy lives. We know self-care is important, but it’s not a priority. It gets pushed it to the backburner.
Days start at 6 AM with a hurried breakfast, getting to work before 7:30 AM, skipping lunch to get a presentation started, working late and missing the gym, and then finally having everything done by 10 PM to then just head to bed. The next day is the same, and this becomes our week. Yet, we don’t know why we feel so tired.
Putting self-care activities into our daily routine can seem odd at first, almost indulgent, but it is critical to build a balanced life.
When looking for activities that promote self-care, look for something that refuels you, rather than something that takes away from you. Different activities do different things for people. For some, a warm cup of tea and a book sounds perfect. For others playing card games with friends is splendid. There is no right or wrong, just whatever gives you energy.
The benefits of Self-Care
Before looking into how to make the plan, are self-care activities even worth adding to our daily routine?
A survey conducted by Everyday Health found that America is in the midst of a stress epidemic. One-third of people visit a doctor about something stress-related, with 57% of people admitting they’re paralyzed by stress.
Everyone handles stress differently, and it can look different for people when this stress builds up without a release. The symptoms of stress can be insomnia, fatigue, muscle tension, social withdrawal, substance abuse, over-eating, and even depression.
To control off these negative conditions, self-care can be used to promote more resilient physical, mental, and emotional health. In addition to just promoting better overall health, practicing self-care has other benefits.
1. Self-care gives a break from stress and reduces the chances of burnout too.
Self-care is not a panacea; it will not eliminate all stress in your life. However, it will give a much-needed break from common workplace and life stressors. By getting away from this stress for a set amount of time, this break helps us decompress and re-set to tackle the stressors in a better mindset.
The American Psychological Association has found that people who regularly step-back from stressors feel more capable that they can handle the stress. Mostly because they get a mental reprieve from the stressors and they can realistically assess the situation from a new, more relaxed point of view. It is the idea of instead of hitting your head against a wall, it is better to walk away for twenty minutes where you will come back to a solution.
2. Self-care activities improve productivity and cognitive function.
Harvard Health found that people who practice self-care, especially people who focus on practices that build mindfulness, such as meditation, have reduced the mind-wandering tendency. This reduction in mind-wandering helps them have an increase in focus, concentration, decision-making abilities, and motivation that are all imperative factors in productivity.
Looking to start a meditation practice? Try these 7 to see what works for you!
3. Self-care can help us help others
When we are stressed, we get irritable. Being irritable can lead to feelings of resentment. By making time for ourselves and taking care of our needs, it prevents this build-up of irritability and resentment. By taking care of ourselves, we are in a better mental and physical state to take care of those who are most important to us in our lives and whom we feel grateful for instead of resentful of them.
How to Develop a Unique Self-Care Plan
Just as stress manifests itself differently, self-care looks different for everyone as well. There is no “best way” to practice self-care. That is why is it important to build the practice for yourself. To get started, go through the steps below to help create your own, unique self-care plan.
1. Make a “no” list.
These are activities you will stop doing because they zap energy from you during times that should be for self-care.
Making a no list does not mean stop having responsibilities. It just means shifting your responsibilities to make them work for you. If you find yourself checking work email from your phone at 9 PM on the couch, say no to that behavior. Set limits on when you will be checking work email, from 7 AM-6 PM for instance. Setting healthy boundaries frees you to handle life’s other responsibilities while also making time for self-care.
Look for other unhealthy behaviors you do that detract from your life. Stress-eating, overly dwelling on negative emotions, overuse of social media, and over-working yourself are all common ones.
2. Make a list of key areas in your life.
Break-out your life into different categories. Breaking out the categories can be work-life, relationships, hobbies, physical fitness, and any other areas you want to include. Look into your life and see where you want to set some boundaries and where you want to build in time for yourself each day. Knowing the categories of your day to day (or what you want your day to day activities too be) helps you set priorities of where you want to spend more of your time.
3. WOOP to see the barriers.
WOOP stands for wish, outcome, obstacle, plan. See what the ideal self-care looks like for you in each of these areas. Visualize that outcome, and most importantly see the obstacles and plan how you will work through them. Anticipating obstacles and planning for them is one of the surest ways to overcome these obstacles and achieve your goal of increases self-care time.
4. Schedule time in your day.
If you don’t prioritize scheduling time, self-care will not happen. Look for times in your schedule to make time for self-care activities. Making time can be twenty minutes in the morning, twenty minutes in the afternoon, and thirty minutes at night. It might not seem like a lot, but by the end of the day, you spent over an hour caring for yourself.
- It doesn’t have to be the same activities every day. Try meditating in the morning and exercising in the afternoon. The next day call a friend in the morning and watch your favorite show in the afternoon. Mix-it up while keeping in mind the areas you want to build in some more self-care.
- Share your plans with others. Having some social accountability and peer pressure can encourage you to stick with the self-care plan. Especially if self-care feels foreign to you. Having an accountability buddy provides an outlet to talk about self-care goals and an avenue to talk about how it is working for you.
- Bonus: Be present with the self-care. Self-care isn’t supposed to be something else on the to-do list or something that is supposed to be too straining. Focus on being fully present in the activity and try to prevent your mind from wandering to the other responsibilities you have. Letting your mind wander can severely dampen the enjoyment and benefit of the self-care activity.
Inspiration for Self-Care Activities
The internet is full of self-care ideas. I like using the below ideas in my life to find some self-care. Search around and build up your self-care library!
Category: Physical health
Taking daily walks, even if it just ten minutes
Light stretching every night before bed
Weightlifting three times a week
Category: Mental health
Five-minutes of meditation each day
Reflecting on the week each Sunday afternoon
Category: Relationships
Giving a call to the family multiple times a week
Texting friends to see how they are doing
Category: Hobbies
Making time to draw each day
Cook at least one new recipe each week
Main Take-Aways
- Making time for self-care can seem indulgent at first. However, it benefits not only ourselves but others in our life too.
- To build in self-care, it takes some effort and time. Self-care should be an enjoyable and fun way to build in little joys into each day
Action items
Develop your self-care plan. On the next upcoming Monday, set out time each day of the week to practice self-care. Check-in with yourself on Sunday and see how you feel after building in self-care each day.
