Self-care is an important habit that we need to take accountability for, to ensure long-term health and well-being. While there are many self-care activities that are prompted, self-care practices have to resonate with yourself to offer the benefits that you are seeking.
Adopting a self-care routine can be quite difficult to sustain for certain people, and the reason being is, self-care is defined as different things to different people. Some would find that the indulgence of some nice Netflix TV shows is perfect ‘me’ time, others can be more focused on gaming and gambling interests, with an evening session streaming on online betting apps. Each and every person has different reasoning’s, and today is a way of identifying how to do that exactly.
Within this year alone for example, almost a third of people sought to invest into more self-care practices within the pandemic. Life has undeniably become more stressful with things very much less in our control as we would like. We are seeing an increasing number of youths and adults facing burn-out and other psychological disruptions, even though many people are spending more time at home now than ever. That is why developing a routine which gives back to you and your body, is massively important, but it can also act as a separation between the body and the pressures that await within one shared home environment.
Understand what self-care actually is to you
To define self-care in particular, it essentially is an activity or habit which resonates to yourself and allows you to listen and ‘check-in’ with your body so to speak. Often, self-care activities never usually require huge strenuous effort, and are therefore very minimal in the energy needed to make such activities align within your life.
While self-care can be adopted in everything we do-down to the very plate of food that we feed ourselves, it goes beyond the habits which are systematically practiced by ourselves every day. Changing your behaviour and the way you interact with things can aid your self- care, however it really comes down to the gratification that certain activities can bring to your life, with an added sense of pride and achievement. Self-care practices bring fulfilment, meaning it is important you completely enjoy them. If you do not enjoy yoga and meditation for example, there would be no point in doing them.
Find what makes you feel centred
First thing is first, you need to take some time to reflect and journal on what particularly makes you feel centred. It could be meditating with your app Headspace, it could be attending workshops dedicated to self-care, this will entirely depend on you specifically. Meaning, usually you cannot be influenced by anyone else but your own mental well-being, and the intimate connection you will create from there on then.
Brainstorm how these things can be integrated in your life
Make sure you start small and build up whichever self-care practice you choose to be within your daily schedule. By understanding how you will fit it in weekly/daily, this will make it much easier to stick to for the long-term.
Set yourself some goals
After you identify when and where you can practice your self-care activity, you should set yourself some goals of how many times you want to incorporate it monthly and strive towards reaching that goal. Make sure it is realistic and measurable, so you can monitor and evaluate the entire process. Don’t worry if you have to adjust to make it more sustainable and realistically achieved. If your own self-care routine is making you stressed out and is not achievable, re-think and try again.
Alicia Saville did her degree in psychology at the University of Edinburgh. She interested in mental health and well-being.
