Why is Self-care so Important?
Self-care involves being good to yourself and taking adequate care of your mental, physical and emotional well-being. The practice of self-care is founded on the theory that it is important to be thoughtful and kind to yourself the way you are to others. It involves placing your needs above others just for a while.
Here’s why you need to constantly engage in self-care:
It relieves you of stress: Experts have revealed that self-care is a great stress reliever. Most times, you could feel burned out or burdened by work, family or other factors. However, when you take care of yourself, you relax your nerves and improve your mental, physical and emotional well-being. Feeling stressed or burned out? Try focusing on yourself and engaging in self-care. You’d feel relieved and relaxed almost immediately.
Increased productivity: Engaging in self-care helps to relieve you of stress and subsequently, increase productivity. When you are in a state of relaxation, you can even focus on your goals and work towards achieving them.
An increased capacity to give: Have you ever tried filling an empty bucket with an equally empty bucket? It’s impossible. When you are burned or fizzled out, it becomes increasingly difficult to take care of others. As such, you need to focus on yourself and improve your well-being before trying to take care of others. Give to yourself before giving to others. Always remember: You can not pour from an empty bucket!
Types of Self-care
Are you stressed out or feeling burdened? Then, you need self-care. The problem with engaging in self-care however, lies in the fact that most people do not know the type of self-care to engage in. It is important to note that there are several types of self-care acts which can be practiced, depending on the situation. These include:
Emotional Self-Care
Emotional self-care involves focusing on your emotional well-being and being in touch with your emotions. When you concentrate on improving your emotional health, you become happier and less fizzled out. The first step to emotional self-care is developing a willingness to stay connected to your emotions. Here are some useful emotional self-care acts to practice today:
• Express your emotions: A lot of people are used to bottling their emotions and not expressing how they feel. However, if you want to get started on the path to emotional self-care, you will need to express your emotions and feelings. Tell your friends and family how you feel about their actions. You’d feel better once you do this.
• Keep a diary: Sometimes, writing how you feel in a journal or diary can help to improve your emotional well-being. It’s just like having an inanimate best friend.
Physical self-care
In today’s busy world, a lot of people believe that working 9-5 counts as physical self-care. However, physical self-care involves focusing on your bodily health and well-being. This type of self-care can help you to stay in shape and feel relaxed. Ready to take care of your physical well-being? Here are some acts to practice:
• Take a walk regularly: Taking a walk can help you to stay in shape and equally blow off some steam.
• Participate in aerobic exercises: This includes cycling, jumping and other related exercises.
Mental Self-Care
This is one of the most important types of self-care. Your mind is the most important element of your body and its state determines the state of other elements. What this means is that a healthy mind gives rise to healthy emotions and an equally healthy state of being. Thus, you must take extra measures to ensure that your mind is adequately taken care of. Here are some healthy mental self-care tips to practice today:
• Meditate and stay connected with your emotions and experiences.
• Reflect upon nature and its beauty
• Practice mindfulness
Self-care is a basic concept and is the key to achieving total well-being. It is important to take care of yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and even spiritually! Hence, as each day goes by, you should try practicing simple acts of self-care.
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