With extra time at home, are you looking for ways to enrich your day to day life? Practicing self-care allows you to use this time in social isolation to take care of yourself and help reduce stress you might have over our current situation.
Self-Care is the practice of taking deliberate action to encourage growth or maintain one’s own health. This can be your physical, mental, or emotional health, or any combination thereof! Some basic categories to use in practicing your self-care are eating, sleeping, socializing, exercising, and stimulating your mind. All of these are important to your health, but there are many ways of addressing them.
Practicing self-care by focusing on eating can look like these:
- consulting a Registered Dietician to make sure that your specific food needs are being met while you’re at home
- taking the time to make your favorite meal or trying out a new healthy smoothie recipe
- personally, I like to make sure I drink enough water every day by slicing fruit and having flavored water whenever I want
Focusing on sleep can mean:
- creating a consistent bedtime routine
- try a face mask and a calming cup of tea to relax before bed
- simply prioritize getting enough sleep each night, roughly 8 hours is a good goal
Socializing might look different now than it used to, but you can still enjoy time with others!
- Our phones and computers allow us to text, call, and even video chat with people around the world.
- Try sending cards and letters in the mail. Do you have beautiful stationery and cards that have been sitting around? Now is the time to send them to someone and spread joy!
We all know exercise is important for more than just your physical health.
- if you enjoy spending time outside, try taking a walk!
- try yoga outdoors or in your own home
- look for online exercise options like written workouts or classes that you can follow along with
Mental stimulation can look very different for everyone.
- meditation, journaling, and painting are all great options
- you can enjoy reading books or maybe try joining an online book club
- brain teasers, crossword puzzles, and online trivia competitions are great options
- include meditation or a daily Bible study in your routine
Many self-care options cover more than one of these categories. Drawing a nice bath with scented candles after exercising can help you relax before bed and wrap up a hard workout. Baking a treat and delivering it to a neighbor provides you mental stimulation and some socialization while giving your neighbor a nice surprise! Make today special by focusing on yourself and practicing self-care to preserve and promote your health in a way that works for you.