“There are days I drop words of comfort on myself like falling leaves and remember that it is enough to be taken care of by myself.” – Brian Andreas
How busy is your life? Do you work long hours barely getting enough sleep? Do you tend to stress a lot? Do you often forget to take care of yourself? If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you should look closer into practicing self-care, to help improve your mental health and overall quality of life.
What is Self-Care?
Self-care is a tool that we should all be incorporating into our daily routine to relax and look after ourselves. While simple things such as exercising and brushing our teeth help to maintain our physical health, self-care is an easy way we can maintain our mental health and prevent the development of disorders. As someone who suffers from depression and anxiety, I have found self-care has been essential for helping me and making me more relaxed.
This is What Self-Care is About & How You Can Practice It
Sportify!
When we exercise, our bodies release endorphins which increase our mood and reduce our perception of pain which relaxes us and lifts our mood. On top of this, getting outside and being surrounded by nature can be very therapeutic and helps stretch out our muscles after a long day sat behind a desk.
Talk It Out
Whether it is a family member, a friend or a therapist, talking about whatever is stressing you out can help and take weight off your shoulders. Also having someone else looking at your situation from a different perspective means they can offer you the advice you may not have thought of yourself.
Be creative
Find something artistic that you enjoy and incorporate it into your weekly routine. Painting, drawing, coloring, model building, and photo editing can all be great ways. Also, remember that it doesn’t have to be perfect, if you enjoy drawing stick men and using glitter glue, then do just that!
Pamper yourself
Treating your body is a great way to feeling good. This can be anything from a DIY face mask and bubble bath with candles to a full on a spa day. Also, massages are a fantastic way to relax, which can be done by yourself or by a significant other.
Reading
I find that reading lets me transport myself to another world for an hour or two and just ignore everything that is happening in the real world for a little bit. Try it, enjoy it!
Cooking
Dust off a cookery or baking book and find a recipe that you want to try. Not only will you get the satisfaction of being able to say you made something, but you also get to eat it afterwards.
Laugh
Find a movie, TV show or even a cat video on YouTube and have a good laugh. Laughing, like exercise releases endorphins which naturally make you feel a lot better.
Be kind to yourself
Get yourself an outfit that makes you feel confident and attractive. Delete people from social media who make you feel bad about yourself.
Journaling
Taking 10 minutes every day to write about how you’re feeling and how the day went can be very cathartic. It can also help you to identify behaviors or people that might be causing you to feel down.
Music
We can outwardly express a lot of our emotions through music and find songs that make us laugh, smile, dance and sometimes cry when we need to. As well as music, you can also find guided meditation online and ASMR videos to help you relax and get to sleep.
Final Thoughts
Overall, in today’s world, we could all benefit from self-care due to the stress we are put under and the amount of work we have to do. All of us take some time to focus on our physical health, so why do so many people neglect their mental health? If you feel as though you are suffering from a mental illness, rather than being a bit stressed there are many people who can help, and talking to your doctor is one of the first steps that you can make in recovery.