We all work hard in our lives and for most of us it’s typical to work harder for others than it is for ourselves. Let’s face it, the foundation of most jobs is serving others. Most of us put in at least 8 hours a day helping those around us reach goals and have better outcomes. Devoting our time to others is truly what life is all about whether it be family, friends, or company you work for. In the hustle of everyday life, we often forget about taking care of ourselves. It’s important to learn how to self-care.
Self-Care is taking our time and energy to focus on oneself. It’s allowing yourself to leave responsibility alone for a short while and have fun doing something you enjoy. Self-care looks different for each one of us. Caring for yourself can promote (not limited to) Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual health.
Probably the biggest reason we must take self-care seriously is because of stress. Stress hits us all and can take the form of many different ailments. Stress can catch us off guard and before we know it. Furthermore, we can get caught in a web of uncertainties because of it.
Stress makes us assume the worst of situations and can put us into a fight, flight or freeze mode. Stress can also cause unwanted emotional responses and distorts our ability to critically think through problem situations in our lives.
Here are a few reflective questions related to stress you might consider asking yourself. What makes you stressed? Does stress have a purpose? What actions can you take to control your stress? What happens when you don’t control your stress? How does stress prevent you from moving forward? What can our stress teach us about ourselves that can help prevent it in the future?)
Self-Care should be a need not just a want or a thought.
It’s not about what you do, it’s that you do it. Self-care is just good for our health! We need to make time for ourselves. Even if you must plan it into your already busy schedule. Self-care should be at the top of our priority list but most of the time it isn’t. If you want to be the best you can for others, then you need to be the best version of you. When we view self-care as a need it helps us stay in tune with some of the best parts of ourselves. This need is one of many ways to relieve stress and find balance in our lives.
Self-Care should be pro-social.
It should go without saying, self-care should be pro-social. Pro-social in the sense that it should add meaning to your life. Furthermore, it should be productive or have a healthy purpose. The more purpose it has the more meaning and value it will bring to your life.
Brainstorm new Ideas that excite you.
Self-care should excite you. You should never feel like it’s a burden. It’s not typical work, it’s enjoyable. Brainstorming is a great way to bring self-care activities to life. As stated, earlier everyone is going to have different interests and or hobbies they like. Furthermore, once you brainstorm, be okay with constantly changing it up. Brainstorming is typically a list of ideas. It doesn’t matter what the prosocial or healthy purposeful activity is, it’s more that it excites you and you set time for it.
Self-care should happen often.
Self-care may be taking a vacation once or twice a year, but it shouldn’t stop there. What about the other 50 weeks of the year? We need to make a pattern or habit of caring for ourselves. It may not be every day but sometime throughout the week we need to take time for yourself. Life is too short, and we work too hard not self-care.
Self-Care can rejuvenate you.
We work hard serving other day in and out. Sometimes we work so hard that there isn’t energy left for ourselves. Which is miserable if you think about it. Joy, excitement, refreshment along with many others, are all feelings associated with rejuvenation. Again, self-care doesn’t need to be a burden or a task. If it is, then it’s not really self-care. It should serve to re-focus. I often think about a hard day at work, and you get home, and feel exhausted. A good night’s sleep helps rejuvenate us. It gives our brain a chance to process while sleeping. Self-care should act like this. It’s designed to take our mind away from the day-to-day stressors.
Questions to ask yourself about Self-Care?
Would you say you currently have a healthy self-care routine? Why or why not? Do you have self-care goals? If you have goals, what are they? (Would you benefit from writing them down?) What are you currently doing to achieve these goals? / What can you do in the future to make sure you can maintain self-care? / What should you stop doing that gets in the way of self-care?
Self-Care Examples
As said above there are many ways to self-care here are some examples you might consider Meditation, Reading, Writing, Drawing, Coloring, Walking, Running, and Cycling. The sky is the limit, just remember them prosocial and productive for your life.
Conclusion
We all need to take time for ourselves and forget about our responsibilities every once in a while. Self-Care helps us become a better version of ourselves. If we don’t care for ourselves then our service to others will become less effective overtime. We are less good to people around us and it come out many different ways. So, take time out of your lives to find new things that intrigue you and give them a shot. Everybody depends on us to be the best version of ourselves. Lastly, Self-care will take us to the next level of this by pushing us toward balance and eliminating stress.
If you gained something from what you have read, check out the rest of the website ThinkingDeeplySelf-Critically.com. There are many different articles that you may find helpful. The website is broken into three different categories. The Foundation, Our Responsibility to Us, and Facilitating Crisis.
If you liked what you have read, this website has a variety of articles that help us become the best version of ourselves. You might enjoy the Foundation, Our Responsibility to Us, Our Responsibility to Others and Facilitating Crisis.
Lastly, If you’re looking for another article on Self-Care you might check out this article from the National Institute of Mental Health.
