Self-care. Two simple words, yet they hold profound implications for our overall well-being and life satisfaction. But what is self-care? Well, first it’s not pampering yourself. It’s about taking responsibility for your own health and happiness and making sure you’re taking care of your own needs as well as others. It’s about recognizing that you are worth the time and effort it takes to maintain a healthy lifestyle. In all honesty, I don’t call self-care, self-care. I call it loving yourself. Loving yourself equals actions and decisions based on what is best for you.

The Five Key Areas of Self-Care:

Below I have put together areas to focus on with a little explanation.

1. Physical Self-Care: This includes activities that improve your physical health such as regular exercise, a balanced diet, enough sleep, and regular medical check-ups. Physical self-care is essential for maintaining good health and energy levels.
2. Emotional Self-Care: This involves activities that help you connect, process, and reflect on a full range of emotions. This could involve something like keeping a journal, practicing gratefulness and contentment, or engaging in activities that make you happy. If you have not read any books about emotional intelligence I highly recommend you do. The better you are able to process emotionally the more emotionally healthy you will be.
3. Social Self-Care: Humans are social creatures. We need strong, positive relationships in our lives to feel happy and fulfilled. This could mean spending time with loved ones, meeting new people, or engaging in group activities that you enjoy. Good health relationships include people who tell you the truth, not just make you feel good. There is an old proverb, “The wounds of a friend are better to be trusted than the kisses of an enemy.”
4. Mental Self-Care: This includes activities that stimulate your mind and challenge you. This could be anything from reading a book, learning something new, problem-solving or engaging in a hobby. Set up challenges for yourself to overcome. It’s important to know that we are built to overcome challenges.
5. Spiritual Self-Care: I personally believe in Jesus, what this means is that I spend time in prayer, reading the bible, and talking with other believers.

Now that we know what the five key areas of self-care are, let’s look at how to create a self-care plan that encompasses all of these areas.

Creating a Self-Care Plan:

The first step to creating a self-care plan is to assess which areas of self-care you have been neglecting. Once you’ve identified these areas, you can start to incorporate activities that support these areas into your daily routine. For example, if you’ve been neglecting your physical self-care, you could start by incorporating a 30-minute walk into your daily routine.

One of the ways you can self-assess is to do what I call the Positive | Neutral | Negative List. I use this personally I make a list of each action that I am currently taking or should take as either positive neutral or negative.

Start small and form daily habits. Habits are powerful tools that help us create consistency. Consistency is king.

Why Self-Care is Important:

Ok, what everyone wants to know. The benefits of self-care are manifold, and they extend beyond the individual to those around them. Here are 5 benefits of self-care:

1. Improves Physical Health: When we take care of our bodies, we are less likely to get sick and are better able to cope with stress.
2. Enhances Emotional Well-being: Taking time out to care for ourselves helps to keep depression, anxiety, and stress at bay.
3. Boosts Self-esteem: When we take care of ourselves, we send a positive message to our subconscious that we are worth caring for.
4. Increases Productivity: By ensuring that our own needs are met, we are better able to take care of the tasks at hand.
5. Strengthens Relationships: By taking care of our own needs, we are better able to be there for others. You cannot love others if you don’t love yourself. Loving yourself is not doing whatever you want, it’s doing what is best for you. And sometimes doing what’s best for you involves painful actions and decisions.

Loving yourself, “self-care,” is an integral part of maintaining a balanced, fulfilling life. Whether you’re a student juggling the pressures of academia, a busy professional navigating the corporate world, or anyone else for that matter, self-care should be a non-negotiable part of your routine. Remember, you can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first, and everything else will fall into place.