Often ignored but necessary, self-care is any action or behavior that helps a person avoid health problems. Excessive stress may increase your risk of heart problems, for example. So, by definition, stress relief can help someone keep their heart pumping.
Self-care also helps us sharpen our mental and physical health through better self-esteem, stress management, and overall well-being.
These behaviors help provide balance in an increasingly overstimulating world. Self-care forms an essential part of a lifestyle that keeps us healthy, happy, and more in tune with our minds and bodies.
The problem is you aren’t doing enough of it.
A 2019 study, for example, found that student nurses may neglect their own health and
wellness needs while training to look after others — and this might, in turn, reduce their
effectiveness when providing care.
That’s why taking the time to check in with your mind and body isn’t a bad thing. In fact, the pursuit of health and happiness is far from selfish.
Need to Take Action:
Since self-care is a highly individual practice. There’s no set prescription for how or when to do it.
You should take time every day to do something for yourself. Lost for ideas? Don’t fret. We’ve rounded up some sweet strategies for slashing stress, boosting happiness, and improving overall health.
Practice any of these self-care behaviors (or any others that occur to you) daily, weekly, or even hourly — whatever feels best to you.
1. Get outside
Ditching the comfort of your home is a wonderful way to improve mental and physical health. Like meditation, spending time out of doors benefits the brain.
2. Try an outdoor workout
Consider taking your sweat session into nature, too.
Research shows that working out in the Great Outdoors boosts self-esteem more than indoor exercise, especially for people with mental health difficulties.
Another study found that outdoor exercise makes people feel more revitalized and energetic, as well as less tense, confused, depressed, and angry.
3. Stressless
Ugh. Stress. We all know the feeling, and if you’ve never experienced stress, it’s highly likely you’ve never attended a family dinner. But stress can become a real burden on health if you find yourself in that state all the time.
Enter self-care.
By now, we all know that stress is bad for our health. Research suggests that stress may be contagious, and the more stressed we think we are, the worse it might be for our heart health.
But between work, relationships, family, and whatever else life throws at us, it’s difficult not to succumb to stress. Don’t let it get you. Use these strategies, which range from drinking tea to practicing progressive relaxation, to keep the stress monster at bay.
4. Be mindful
Focusing on the present — without judging how we feel and what we think — can be both a liberating and healthy practice. This is known as mindfulness, and it has become an ever-more-mainstream practice in psychological therapy.
Studies show that getting in tune with ourselves through mindfulness improves well-being and brings down stress.
Mindfulness also helps us see ourselves in a truer light.
It may also help you to keep your mind from wandering.
5. Meditate
Meditation is proof that it doesn’t take a ton of time to do a mind and body good. Just a few minutes of quieting your mind can help relieve stress.
Other benefits include a boost in compassion and emotional stability. Some research suggests that meditating could even improve quality of life to the extent it could help keep winter illnesses at bay.
The best part? Its benefits continue even when we’re not meditating — consider it the gift (to yourself) that keeps on giving. Sneak some meditation into day-to-day life with these 10 awesome techniques.
And if you make the excuse that you don’t have time to meditate, you should put aside twice as much time to practice. That’s shorthand for “I don’t have time to invest in my wellness,” which is peak time for needing mindfulness techniques.
6. Turn up the tunes
If you’ve ever noticed that certain songs bring a smile to your face, you’re not alone.
As it turns out, science has taken note, too. Research shows that listening to happy music helps stimulate creative thinking.
Plus, jamming out can also improve heart health.
7. Eat more fruit and veggies
Adding more fruits and veggies to our plate is a wonderful way to practice self-care all throughout the day.
Research shows that eating berries boosts brain health. Noshing on peppers may also help reduce the risk of Parkinson’s.
And in case we needed another reason to load up on nature’s goodness, filling up seven portions of fruits and veggies per day might well make us happier.
Seriously, if we wanted to list every benefit of every vegetable, we’d run out of the website.
So, here’s the best way to cook them to preserve nutrients.
8. Get enough Zzz’s
There are tons of things that can sabotage our sleep, whether it’s a late night at the office, a
wild night with friends, or just catching up on “Scandal.”
The problem is, skimping on shut-eye can hurt job productivity, make us choose to eat larger
portions, and may lead to diseases like heart disease and diabetes.
Prioritize snooze time for a healthier, happier you — even if it’s just a quick cat nap during your lunch break.
9. Unplug
These days, it feels like everyone’s glued to a phone, laptop, or both at the same time.
Deliberately taking a break from social media, e-mail, blogging, and so on can help us
recharge and give our brain the downtime it needs to work at an optimal level.
Life is hard. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it. The first step is wanting to see a change in your day-to-day life. If something’s not right, fix it.
The most important part of all this is being kind to yourself. Don’t punish yourself for forgetting to go on a run or being too busy to sit down with a book.
It’s more important that these changes are sustainable and nourishing, rather than a chore and a drag. So, if you go for a day of self-indulgence, don’t beat yourself up. Just try and do more to really care for yourself the next day.
Be careful not to become unhappy while trying to find happiness — it’s a common pitfall.
Remember, it's you that needs to want to change to be who you want to be!
Coach Nye
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