How can I improve my self-care?
SELF CARE VS SELFISHNESS
Self-care activities are those things we do to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Research that has found self-care to have huge positive benefits (increasing empathy, immunity, lower levels of anxiety, and depression (Schure, Christopher, & Christopher, 2008).
Self-care is sometimes mistaken for selfishness, however, even though self-care actually allows people to take better care of others. Research by Mills, Wand, and Fraser (2015) argues that it is a lack of self-care during times of distress that has a negative effect on one’s ability to provide care and compassion to others. Because self-care ensures that we have taken care of our needs, we operate from a state of inner balance, which renders us better equipped to meet others’ needs.
I JUST DON’T HAVE TIME!
While self-care may sound simple enough, it is often difficult to execute. One of the most common reasons for us not engaging in regular self-care is that we “don’t have time”. Fortunately, there are many different self-care practices we can do, and none of them are especially time-consuming or require a lot of planning. Once self-care becomes a part of our everyday lives, it is likely that we’ll become more and more protective of that time and wonder how we ever managed without it.
SELF-CARE VISION BOARD
Doing kind and caring things for ourselves, particularly when we are struggling, can help us to cope and move through difficult emotional experiences. Self-care activities can be sensory, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social. The idea with initiating self-care and integrating it into everyday life is to find out what feels good to you—something that you genuinely enjoy doing, and that fits with your lifestyle and your values.
This exercise involves creating a self-care vision board. A vision board is a visual representation of a particular concept using images, illustrations and/or words. The aim of the exercise is to help us increase self-care and self-compassion in a creative way. If we keep the vision board visible it helps to remind us of the importance of self-care for our lives. The more this is present and forefront in our minds, the more like we are to carry out the actions.
Step 1: Brainstorm self-care activities
Come up with a list of as many potential self-care activities as possible. Be bold and creative, allowing yourself to consider new and different potential activities. Only include activities that you would genuinely enjoy doing and that fit with your lifestyle and your values. You can think around these different themes of self-care to get a good range of activities: sensory, emotional, physical, spiritual, and social.
Step 2: Collect images for your vision board
Find positive images that correspond with your chosen self-care activities. Look for images that resonate with you, and inspire you. You might like to use the internet, magazines, and photographs as potential sources. Use photos of activities that you can do to take better care of yourself and your needs.
Step 3: Collect words for your vision board
You can decide to keep your vision board completely visual or to add words and phrases to it. The words and phrases you choose should reflect or relate to your chosen self-care activities. You might like to cut words out of magazines or print them from the internet. Choose words and fonts that resonate with you and inspire you.
Step 4: Put your vision board together
Once you have gathered your images and inspiring phrases, get creative with your arrangement. Find a place to display your vision board where you’ll see it regularly and give you daily inspiration.