Self Care - Why it's important - 10 Methods of Self Care Practices

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What is Self Care?

You may have heard this thrown around in recent times and it may be something that you don’t know you need. Or maybe you do know that it’s needed, but never have the time to dedicate to self care. It’s even possible you’ve never heard of self care and the importance this has on your every day life. Although there are many different definitions, I like to think about it as an individual’s contribution to the preservation of one’s mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. It is the overall maintenance of one’s general wellbeing.

Why is Self Care important?

With the hustle and bustle of life, we sometimes don’t take the time to slow down the hectic environment we place ourselves in. We can develop not so good habits that contribute to our feelings of tiredness, sluggishness, lack in motivation, lack in focus, lack in mental clarity, low self esteem, stress, anxiety and physically not feeling our best. By even taking 30 minutes out of your day to focus on something that will contribute to increasing your energy levels, your mood, slow down your mind and checking in with yourself to how you are feeling, it can make the world of difference to your overall well being. You will find more compassion and kindness to yourself, you’ll start to notice changes in your physical and mental health, achieve work-life balance, and potentially strengthen the relationships around you. It is a way of achieving the best version of your self.

When should you practice Self Care?

Although there is no set time of the day that is recommended, it should be at a time where you can spare a moment. Maybe it might be at the start of the day and you might wake up 15-30 minutes before your normal wake up time. It could be directly after work if you’re sitting on a train. Maybe it’s once you get home and finished all your regular duties with your family and it’s before bed time. If all of those don’t suit, maybe it’s sparing some minutes during your lunch break. No matter what time of day, it should be built into your day or schedule, like any other task you do. We can all spare some time to our general wellbeing.

This is all great LiLi, but I don’t have any ideas of Self Care practises. No worries, I will list some ideas below to help you on your way. I found these benefited me for my own self care and improvement. I hope you find it useful towards your own Self Care.

Mental Self Care Practices

I think the mind is a good place to start. We process so much through the day through our thoughts and if we don’t slow them down, it causes mental fatigue, stress, anxiety and sometimes even depression. Below I will list the ways in which I improved my mental wellbeing.

• Starting a Journal - Whether it’s writing down in a notebook or using an online journal, I think writing down your thoughts for the day allows you to release them. It can reduce the amount of worry and stress you have by clearing your mind and also letting go of negative thoughts. By reflecting on your thoughts, you also have a private space to share everything that you are feeling. The benefits of journal allows you to calm the mind, write out any struggles, make you self aware with your own anxiety and can shift your perspective if you think about anything positive that happened during your day. Long term, it can increase your happiness through letting things go, you can track your own progress, you can set goals or overall be grateful for things in occurring in your life. My personal favourite way of journaling is in an app called Stoic. Not only can you journal from a blank page, but they also have different writing prompts within the app. I am not affiliated with them, but just enjoy the app.

• Meditate - I know this can be a hard practice to get into, especially if you can’t calm your mind down. I usually meditate to nature sounds like wood burning and wind blowing. Sometimes I put on meditation music or search on Youtube guided meditations as an alternative. I use the app Stoic for my nature sounds, but there are other great apps out there like Headspace and Calm that I’ve used before that have helped me. What I like about Headspace is that they teach you slowly how to build up to longer meditations and you can just start with just 5 minutes a day. When my mind is a bit crazy, I tend to focus on just my breathing to not allow distracting thoughts get in the way. The benefits of meditation I found is that it allows you to relax, slow down, reduces stress, reduces anxiety, allows you to practice gratitude, gain more mental focus, allows me to be less angry and frustrated, whilst also sharpening my intuition. I also find I gain a lot of answers by meditating because my mind is not hectic to clutter my thoughts during meditation.

• Practice Gratitude - At the end of every day, I try to think of 3 things that I am grateful for. Sometimes they are the same things such as “I have a job”, “I have shelter” and “I have food”. I think for me, this generally feeds towards my overall happiness. It allows me to reflect and be thankful for the positive things in my life and reduces negativity. I have personally found, it has increased my optimism and makes me excited for life. I don’t find I have depressing thoughts by implementing this practice. Overall, I believe it impacts mental wellbeing and makes me compassionate towards myself and others.

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• Reading / Watching Positive Material - I learned over the years that if you read/watch negative concepts and material, it can add to your own mental thoughts in a negative way. For instance, I don’t watch the news unless I have to. Have you ever noticed that the news only reports on negative things that are happening in the world. It’s like that saying “no news is good news”. If you are saturated with negative news, your mind can also favour in that direction. It’s great if you can compartmentalise the information, but some of us can’t. For instance, if a news article was saying crime increased in an area and lists all the negative traits of people living in that suburb, we can be prone to being influenced to that material. Is it likely that you would research yourself both sides of the story? Would you believe the news because they are meant to have done their research? It’s not always on the forefront of our minds to actually do the research right? So, by taking away negative concepts we might read and watch, it can allow for more positive influences to be introduced into our lives. You may start with a book in a genre you enjoy that’s light hearted and fun. You may look into a documentary that looks at improving something in the world. You might read or watch something pertaining to spirituality, that allows you to expand your mind. I have personally found that when you start to focus on things that are going to benefit your mind, it changes your perspective, you become less angry and frustrated, and you look into ways you can start improving your lifestyle.

• Learning a New Skill or Starting a New Hobby - I feel like the possibilities are endless on this. There is so much to learn and experience out there. I think it’s mentally challenging in a good way to learn a new skill or start a hobby. Maybe you’ve been putting off a hobby that you want to resume. I think it feels good when you learn something new or master a new skill/hobby. It’s about finding something you are interested in and putting your passion behind it. It stimulates our brain by learning and you get a sense of pride and accomplishment too. Some things I learned to do in lockdown - I made a macrame, how to start an e-commerce store, how to self publish books and how to sell things online. I feel like this has got me excited for the future and overall my mental well being has signficantly improved. I also feel very knowledgeable as a result which boosts my confidence.

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Physical and Mental Self Care Practices

I found the below practices that may have significantly improved me physically, but it also added to my mental wellbeing. They are like double the amount of goodness in one type of practice.

• Eating Less Processed Foods - This has been such a major game changer for me. I used to be addicted to eating chocolate. Covid lockdowns in Victoria, Australia were so harsh, I started getting depressed and ate a lot of junk food. My boyfriend and I used to order takeaway food that consisted of so much oil and processed items, it definitely added to those dark days during our lockdown. We are eating a more plant based diet. My boyfriend has completely gone plant based, but I sometimes eat meat if I go out with friends. Now, I am not here to praise any diet. I am here to say that processed foods have so much impact to health that sometimes we just aren’t taught about. More and more I see articles indicating the bad effects of processed food which includes cancer and heart disease. The more natural we eat, the better. Depending on the processed food, it usually is made to have more shelf life in your grocery aisle, contains preservatives, additives, artificial colours and flavourings. Other nasties that can occur is high sugar content, high salt content, some foods have no nutritional value and these foods can cause addictions. I also found by having processed foods, I’d always get that slump and wanting to have a nap to feel better. Sometimes we ignore the signs that physically present themselves in our bodies such as headaches, bloating, gas and tiredness. If you’re physically showing some symptom after you eat food, it’s probably an indication that you should not be eating it right? I used to get headaches after eating any processed sugar and I used to ignore that because I enjoyed it too much. It’s time to start listening to your body and what it’s telling you. Once switching to more natural foods, which are mostly fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and legumes, I have found my mental clarity has improved significantly. No longer do I suffer from brain fog that processed foods caused and I have more clarity. Eating well has improved my moods, focus and general happiness too. I have found it has also allowed me to lose weight - all the weight of eating processed foods.

• Spending Time in Nature - Whenever you are out of the way of distractions, and can spend some time in nature, I find it so calming and relaxing for the mind and body. It also allows you to practice more mindfulness. You can stop to engage in the beauty that nature offers and help to improve your outlook. I get this sense that everything is going to be okay when I get to spend some time in nature and it reduces any stress or worry for me. Not only that, but going out for exercise is physically good for your body and if it’s a nice sunny day, you get some vitamin D from the sun. Just by getting vitamin D you can start to feel better as it boosts your immune system. Sometimes I even meditate in nature, just to absorb the sounds and practice being present and mindful in those moments. I gain better intuition and mental focus by spending time in nature also.

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• Exercise - no matter if it’s going outside to run and walk, or going to the gym, exercising has both physical and mental health benefits. I think the more you move the body, the better circulation you have, it prevents can prevent disease and physical ailments that may manifest in the body. Now this isn’t for everyone, but sometimes I just put on some music and dance. On those days when I don’t feel like going out, to get some physical movement going, I just dance to my favourite music. It doesn’t have to be too long and you are in the comfort of your home. I find it more enjoyable as I am not a person that likes working out. I will get my exercise mainly from dancing and walking. I just find that by moving my body, I gain more energy to do things and it boosts my mood. I laugh whilst I am doing it because I do genuinely have more fun that way. You can do many exercises at home whether that’s getting a weight set, starting a yoga practice or following aerobics off YouTube. Just starting out small can go a long way as long as you maintain consistency.

• Ditching the Processed Sugary Drinks - Sugary drinks might give you instant energy, but that will slowly fade away, and you might end up feeling even worse once the effects wear off. I have mostly stuck to water and freshly squeezed juices. If you don’t like plain water, add some fruit or vegetables to the water so that it gives a bit of freshness. I definitely have felt the benefits of sticking it out on no sugary drinks. It’s taken some adjustment as your body goes into withdrawals, you might want to easily grab that sugary drink, but you know you’ll be worse off on it. I find by drinking mostly water, I have definitely felt I have more energy and my moods changed. This also in general makes your poops better too. It has also cleared up my skin too. Although you may not see the benefits of sticking to drinking water instantly, I have found in a matter of weeks, you’ll be feeling better mentally and physically from it.

• Catching Up With Friends - It may seem simple, but picking up the phone to chat to a friend or meeting them in person will make you feel better (and also will make them feel better). I think social interaction is important to increase our mood and general happiness. You may not want to go outside, so even having a phone conversation can do the trick. The benefit of meeting in person is that you can give and receive hugs. The body releases oxytocin when you get hugged and that can reduce stress and helps you relax. Catching up might mean you have a few laughs too. This has great benefits both emotionally and physically. It increases the endorphins in your body which lowers your stress and we can do away from negative emotions. Sometimes you don’t realise how much you needed that conversation, and your friend might just benefit from it too. It’s nice to not be isolated.

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I’ve only listed some of the things that I benefited from my own Self Care. There are so many things that you can do and make into a practice that will benefit you. Some ideas that I will list below will have benefits for you that are easily done:

• Cook a meal you’ve never attempted before

• Watch a new TV show or movie and think about a few reasons as to why you enjoyed it

• Declutter a space

• Get a massage

• Take a relaxing bath

• Switch off your phone for a day

• Write down some affirmations to motivate you

• Try something new that you would never have done before

• Go bike riding

• Travel to somewhere you’ve never been before

• Research something you’re interested in

…. the list goes on

Try finding something that you feel you resonate with and go with it. Everyone should have Self Care integrated into their daily activities. Feel the change!

Disclaimer - Any advice is from my own personal experience. It should not replace advice by a health care professional and you should always seek guidance from these professionals on any matter relating to mental or physical issues that do concern you.