Mental Health awareness week 2022- Self-care and looking after Yourself
Self-care is super important on the topic of mental health. Whether you have a mental health problem or not looking after your mind and body really helps to maintain positive mental well-being. “self-care” has been talked about a lot on social media, but I think it is important to talk about what self-care actually is and how we can all practice it every day.
What is self-care?
Self-care is the practice of consciously doing things that preserve or improve your mental and physical health. It is conscious, deliberate choice to do something that looks after YOU and YOUR wellbeing. The ultimate aim of self-care is to help your mind and your body feel better!
Why is self-care important?
Self-care is super important to living a happy and healthy lifestyle. Looking after your body is crucial to taking control of your health. With how busy everyone is and their lives it can be easy to forget to put yourself first but looking after yourself will make you feel better and will help you improve in all areas of your busy life. It doesn’t have to be a massive time commitment, even the smallest amount of time to put yourself first and prioritise YOU can go a long way.
Examples of self-care
There are so many ways in which you can care for yourself, but I am going to give you some ideas for some really easy ways to practice self-care which don’t involve spending any money:
· Getting a good night sleep
· Take a relaxing bath
· Drink lots of water
· Say no to things that you don’t want to do and could cause you unnecessary stress
· Go for a long walk
· Listen to some of your favourite music
· Make something healthy and delicious for dinner
· Spend time with your loved ones
· Watch your favourite film
Self-care does not need to break the bank and can have a real impact on your day-to-day wellbeing.
What are some of the benefits of self-care
It can reduce your stress and anxiety: Maxing time for relaxing activities such as reading, listening to music, or taking a warm bath can all be types of self-care. Any activity that makes you feel more relaxed can help to reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety which is likely to lift your mood.
It can boost your self-esteem: Self-care is treating yourself with kindness and by doing this hopefully it will help you to look upon yourself kindlier. Studies have found that people with higher self-esteem find it easier to deal with setbacks and more likely to achieve your goals.
Self-care can lead to better relationships: If you are happier and healthier the more you can give to relationships so it will be easier to create more meaningful interactions and relationships. It can be so easy to put someone else’s needs first but you must take time to care for yourself too so you can help them.
Hopefully, this will encourage you to take some time out of your day to care for yourself and practice some of these activities. If you are already practicing self-care- what is your favourite ways to do this?
