Self-Care 101: What you need to know about self-care | Self-Care Sunday
Happy Self-Care Sunday!
In today’s post, I wanted to share with you what is self-care exactly, the history, the importance, the different types of self-care and some tips on how to start practicing self-care today.
Read on to find out more about it.
I remember growing up practicing self-care every day, back then you didn’t call it a self-care practice, all I know was I was taking care of myself in the area of body, mind, and soul.
I would do a body scrub and face mask almost every day of the week. I would sing, watched movies, read magazines, and find new books to read whenever I had a chance to. I would write poems and songs when I felt like it. I would play Thai musical instruments or an electronic keyboard to make me happy. I would dance when dressing up when no one was watching me. I would pray and meditate every night before I went to bed. I would go for a walk with my mom in the early morning before going to school. I would enjoy my mother’s freshly made food. I would meet my old friends to catch up with what was going on in our lives.
Not until I gave birth to my first daughter when I completely stopped what I used to do to take care of myself. She is my priority. I still got up, washed my face, took a shower, and ate somewhat better than usual. I started to taking care of myself again when my daughter was 9-month-old and tried to get back in shape.
As a mother of two small children, it’s quite hard to find time to balance hours between work and life. But I do include at least 15 minutes of self-care to my day. As long as I am happy at the end of the day, my self-care mission is complete because self-care is about giving love to yourself and making yourself comfortable.
In today’s post, I wanted to share with you what exactly self-care is, the history, the importance, the different types of self-care and some tips on how to start practicing self-care today.
Self-care can include meditating to relax your mind, giving yourself a spa day to cleanse your skin or by going out for a long walk to clear your head of negativity. Anything that promotes good health for yourself is a way of practicing self-care.
Each week in my Club Vibester Newsletter, I send out Self-Care Challenge. As you already know, there are many ways to self-care, and within each of my newsletters, I will be exploring all the ways you can do self-care for every day of the week. It ranges from skincare routines, a healthy lifestyle, and positive mindsets challenges. If you are into self-care games and want to be a part of all the challenges that I will be sending out this year, join our club below!
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Self-Care 101
What is self-care?
It’s the practice of giving love to yourself by taking care of your body, mind, and soul. It’s about maintaining good health for all parts of yourself.
History of Self-care
According to Aisha Harris, a Slate culture writer, the “concept” of self-care had always been around, but it wasn’t until 2016 when it officially became a mainstream concept.
Self-care initially caught on as a medical concept. Doctors have long discussed it as a way for patients to treat themselves and exercise healthy habits, most often under the guidance of a health professional. Before the late 1960s and early 1970s, these patients were usually mentally ill and older adults who required long-term care and otherwise had little autonomy. Later, academics began to look for ways for workers in more high-risk and emotionally daunting professions—trauma therapists, social workers, EMTs, and so on—to combat stress brought on by the job.
The belief driving this work was that one could not adequately take on the problems of others without taking care of oneself (by reading for pleasure or taking the occasional vacation, for instance)—a sentiment you still hear from activists today. And that applied not just to physical welfare but to mental and emotional health. – Slate.com
What is the importance of self-care?
It’s essential to practice good self-care as you need to be at your best if you want to accomplish your goals. Taking care of your mind, body, and soul lets you reach your fullest potential and have the abilities to take on any challenge.
Inadequate self-care can lead to poor health, a negative mindset, and a sense of un-accomplishment. It’s the practice of knowing you are important and worth anything you deserve.
What are the different types of Self-Care?
I found a lot of resources mentioning many types of self-care, but the ones I’m going to talk about cover all the sources.
There are six types of self-care: Emotional, Practical, Physical, Mental, Social, and Spiritual, according to everyaction.com.
Each one focus on a different part of yourself.
- Emotional Self-Care would include writing in a journal or creating artwork.
- Practical Self-Care would be cleaning your room or budgeting.
- Physical Self-Care includes working out or eating a healthy diet.
- Mental Self-Care could be solving a hard puzzle or doing an activity that challenges the mind.
- Social Self-Care would be spending time with friends or making time to help others.
- Spiritual Self-Care is practiced by meditating or spending time in nature.
How to start self-care?
Start your self-care by looking at your life now, and seeing where you might be lacking. Make a plan and follow it to cover all six areas as often as possible. Make time in the mornings to meditate, have lunch with friends and family, go to a museum, or set a budget for yourself. All of these are great ways of starting your self-care, and you can add them to your daily routine.
5 Self-care practices for better wellness
- Make sure to get 8 hours of sleep each day. According to healthline.com, getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep each day lowers your chances of having heart disease and diabetes.
2. Start cooking your meals and eating out less. When creating meals at home, you are giving love to your food by preparing it properly and wanting to make something delicious.
3. Create a budget and stick to it. Write down all your expense each month and next to it write down your total income each month. See your spending versus your income and find ways to lower your costs so that each month you have extra money to save for a big trip or some other desired expense.
4. Read more books. If you can take time to read a book, you can relax your mind from all the stresses of the world. Give your body a chance to recharge and let your imagination explore the book you are reading.
5. Working out every day, even for 5 minutes, is a great way to practice self-care. One of the best things you can do for yourself is exercising, which can include taking a walk, doing some lunges, or going all out at the gym. Doing exercises makes sure your body is healthy and working correctly to help promote better wellness.
What are some Self-care Tips?
Make it part of your routine and write it down. When you write things down, you are more likely to follow through with it than just saying you will do it. If you are going to meditate in the morning, set your alarm a little earlier and follow through every day, so it becomes a habit.
Another tip could be having an accountability partner. Let a co-worker, friends or family member know that you are trying to start taking better care of yourself and check in with them every so often to see if you are doing the tasks you said you are. According to PennState, having an accountability partner is “hugely beneficial for meeting and following health goals.” By just having another person that will hold you accountable to your actions makes you that much more likely to follow through with your self-care.
Daily self-care checklist
Make a checklist of all the self-care goals you have for the day and mark them off as you go through them. You will start to feel a sense of accomplishment and want to get more items to check off your list. Makes sure to celebrate your success as this further installs the idea of completing your checklist and practicing better self-care.
When is International Self-Care Day?
International Self–Care Day (ISD), is on the 24th of July, it provides a focus and opportunity to raise the profile of healthy lifestyle self–care programs around the world.
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What’s your favorite self-care type?
That’s all for today’s self-care 101. I hope you find this post helpful and want to take your self-care to the next level.
Again, you can join me each week for a self-care challenge by signing up to Club Vibester Newsletter where I send out Self-Care Challenges on Sunday of every week. I will help you to come up with many new ways that you can practice self-care. If you are into self-care games and want to be a part of all the challenges that I will be sending out this year, join our club below!
join the CLUB
