Practicing Self-Care

Practicing Self-Care is easier said than done. Here are a few things that make taking care of yourself a bit easier.

1. Take some time to reflect on the last few days. Make a list of all the things you have done that fall in the categories of fulfilling, creative, and necessity. If there are only a small amount of things that fit into the first two categories, then we want to focus on increasing the number of time spent doing these creative and fulfilling actions.

2. There are two main ways to improve Self-Care daily. One is to add new things to your day that promote self-exploration and the second is to reduce habits that increase your stress. As stress increases, Self-Care decreases. Try to add both of these techniques into your daily Self-Care practice. They will promote a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

3. Understanding that Self-Care is important, but also knowing that Self-Care is less about the actions we do and more about the purpose behind the actions, is the golden rule. This is the distinguishing factor between a positive health action and a compensational health action. A quick and easy way to tell the difference between the two types of actions is by taking note of whether you skip the action for a day and it makes the whole day harder. For example, is your mood positive and upbeat when you do the action, but more frustrated and irritable when you don’t do it? Even when missed, a positive health action should not have a large impact on your mood and no guilt follows by missing the activity for the day.