Understanding the importance of self-care and implementing self-care activities into our daily lives are two different things. Specifically, what is self-care? Although things like getting a massage every once in a while, or from time-to-time getting a mani-pedi, or taking a soak in a hot bath, taking a day to shop, or taking a day off to rest and recuperate, or doing a Netflix weekend binge may be self-care like and helpful to do, self-care in its truest sense involves more than doing a rare or occasional activity. As mentioned in the previous article the National Institute of Mental Health defines self-care as “… an intentional practice of caring for oneself, encompassing activities that promote well-being on all levels. It goes beyond surface level pampering and dives deep into nourishing our mind, body, and soul.”
Self-care involves loving ourselves enough to put the effort into doing what we need to do to enhance our overall well-beingwhich becomes a preventable intervention to reduce the likelihood of such things like exhaustion and burnout, fatigue, chronic illness, adversarial relationships, depression, anxiety, and several other life draining experiences. It requires a commitment to implement strategies to enhance short term and long-term wellness. It is almost contradictory- exerting the rightenergy and action to help avoid feeling drained and lethargic.
Initially self-care involves sacrificing instant gratification for long term benefits until the day-to-day self-care activities become gratifying in themselves. For example, starting a daily movement routine which could include a small brisk 5 minute walk along with a 10 minute weight training exercise which will bring long term benefits may at first feel daunting and unpleasant may more than likely over time become pleasurableperhaps even something you look forward to doing each morning. Some of the long-term benefits would include more energy and enhanced physical and mental health. Also, at first, starting a daily five-minute meditation may seem like one more thing I have to do in an already jam-packed day but in time it will usually become something you look forward to doing. In fact, you may discover that after a while you are better able tomanage your time more efficiently and less reactive in your relationships. This same principle will apply with almost every self-care practice you implement.
Here are a few tips for implementing a self-care regimen:
Self-care is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. Also, it is one one of the most important things you can do for the people you love and who love you.
