Self-care can be defined as the steps a person takes to maintain good mental, emotional and physical health. It has a purposeful meaning in promoting healthy functioning and well-being. Self-care is essential in managing the stressors you can’t delete from your life.
Self-care is quite a personalized part of a person’s life. Thus, there are no standards for practicing self-care. There are different ways of caring for yourself. Actually, it is interlinked to the things that satisfy your mind, soul, and body. It could be anything, either watching a movie or taking a nap.
Unfortunately, we often turn towards self-care when we get stressed or overwhelmed. In fact, we should make it an essential part of our lives and practice it frequently. You can adapt some strategies to practice self-care after a busy weekend.
How to Practice Self Care?
Don’t check your mobile immediately after waking up:
Most of us are habitual of setting alarms that wake us up. However, it is not a healthy practice to start our day. Once you turn off the alarm, just put your mobile phone aside and take a break for an hour.
It will help you start a worries-free and uninterrupted start to the day. The first hour after you wake up should be just yours. Therefore, you should spend it with a positive mindset. It is the best time to pamper yourself. Thus, take a shower and have a cup of tea. Unblind all the curtains and enjoy the natural scenery. Furthermore, do all the things that make you happy and satisfied.
When you use your mobile immediately after waking up and start scrolling on social media, reading texts, or checking for work or family-related emails as the first feed of the day, it may have a stressful or overwhelming effect on your mind.
By practicing this routine, you are just making yourself mentally ill, and ultimately it will affect your body also. When you make your mind and body tired in the very first hour of the morning, how will you actively work for the whole day?
Therefore, don’t distract your mind from any work or social media-related activity. Wake up, smile, and admire yourself by giving a particular hour to yourself. Build up yourself and fill yourself up with positive energies so you can actively work for the whole day.
Learn to Say No:
Naturally, everybody has a different personality from others with disparate mindsets, habits, body shape, nature, etc. Therefore, they have various capacities for doing work. No one is inferior to others.
Thus, there is no shame in saying no to any additional task because you are tired of your routine. It’s your right to take some rest according to your will. Your mind and body are like a machine with a specific capacity. Therefore, you may feel tired, irritable, and exhausted when you are spread too thin.
Prioritize your activities and make a schedule accordingly. Don’t disturb your schedule just for others. Just think of when you said ‘yes’ because of others when you wanted to say ‘no.’ Keep in mind that such decisions burden your mind and make you dull.
Thus, it is okay to take a rain-check on the commitments you don’t want to make. Instead, rest and prepare yourself for the essential tasks you can’t compromise.
Laugh a Little:
We’ve heard many times that smiling is the remedy for various problems. Most of us consider it a joke. Instead, laughter is a strong and effective medicine. It triggers healthy physical and emotional changes in people.
Furthermore, laughter improves your immune system, enhances mood, and releases pain and stress. It also enhances your working ability, relationships, and coping with the problems. In short, laughter is easy, full of fun, and free of cost medicine. Laughter triggers the release of the endorphin hormone. It is a neurochemical, which is a natural pain-reliever. Thus, it has a significant influence on your mental health.
No medicine works as fast as laughter. It keeps your mind burden-free, generates hope in you, inspires you, and develops a good relationship with others. Furthermore, laughter also helps you to stay alert and active.
In our childhood, we used to laugh hundreds of times, but we often forget to laugh in adulthood. Unfortunately, we get busy in our daily routines and become more severe that we often forget to laugh. Therefore, we should add more laughter in life to bring our brain and body back into balance.
Do What Feel you Satisfy:
Self-care is your personalized process. However, every person is unique from others. Thus, things or works that can satisfy you will differ from those of your relatives or friends. Maybe trying a new recipe will please one while not you. Some people practice self-care by doing a workout.
Thus, there are no right or wrong methods of self-caring. Do whatever brings peace and self-satisfaction to you. Practicing self-care is about making yourself calm and relaxed after a long, busy week. No matter in what way you do it. Just prioritize yourself to achieve better mental and physical health.
Your mental health is vital in running your life cycle. You cannot do any task properly if you are mentally tired or sick. Therefore, the next time you feel exhausted or overwhelmed, take a deep breath and follow the self-care practices to strengthen your mind and body.