Self-care is a series of activities you perform to protect your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. It’s about taking care of yourself. Do things that improve your mood and relieve anxiety, and maintain optimal well-being. True health and well-being are much more than the absence of injury, disease or infirmity. Rather, it is a state of wholeness between mind, body, spirit and our environment. In a simple term, self-love = self-care. Below are the 4 Pillars of Self-Care: Physical, Emotional, Mental & Spiritual.
Physical Self-care
Physical self-care is probably the most common self-care we know, but it also means so much more. It’s so important because it’s about an overall healthy lifestyle. Healthy eating, body hygiene, regular exercise, taking care of your health and well-being. The mind, soul and body are naturally connected.
When you improve your physical self-care, you automatically experience greater mental and emotional well-being. Regular exercise leads to the release of endorphins (powerful chemicals that improve your mood and give you extra energy) which have a constructive effect on the mind. Physical self-care is not just about what you do. Also about doing things that give you pleasure. Something physical that will help your mind, soul and body.
Ideas for Self-care on a physical, mental and emotional level
- Add exercise to routine. This will help release stress, improve memory and also help you sleep better.
- Healthy eating. This is important because a poor diet can have serious consequences for your well-being.
- Regularly participate in physical activities you enjoy, such as running, swimming, cycling, walking, yoga, etc.
- Do some breathing exercises.
- Get a massage regularly.
- Make a good night’s sleep priority number one: go to bed early and get up early.
- Take care of your appearance. Wear something that makes you feel good and also boosts your self-confidence
Emotional Self-care
Do you know that how you handle your feelings says a lot about how much you love and care for yourself? It is a well-known fact that emotionally healthy people are the ones who can handle life’s challenges. People who are strong enough to recover quickly from any setbacks. Whether we like it or not, anyone can experience emotional health problems. Most of us will get that throughout our lives. So it is of utmost importance to quickly pay attention to our emotional self-care. Why? Because it will not only lead to physical and mental diseases in us, but it will also adversely affect our loved ones.
Emotional self-care includes how we interact with other people. What kind of energy we allow into our space and what boundaries we set for ourselves and others. Allowing our emotions to flow, or at least recognizing our emotional state, is an important part of self-empowerment. If you feel like you can’t be productive with your emotions and feel like they are controlling your life, focusing on emotional self-care can help. To promote emotional self-care, set healthy boundaries with people and never let their emotions become yours.
The fundamental goal of emotional self-care is to ensure that you don’t deplete your emotional reserves by trying to keep up with everything life throws at you. Spreading kindness is one of the significant forms of emotional self-care. This is because it gives you something positive to think about and feel good about. When you practice this emotional self-care, you choose to be in the company of those who appreciate and support your emotions.
Other effective Strategies
- Always try something that makes you happy
- Manage stress. Techniques such as deep breathing, mindfulness meditation or reiki can help relieve stress.
- Do something positive to release your fear, pain, etc.
- Associate with people who share your personal interests and avoid negative people as much as you can.
Mental Self-care
The mind is one of the strange things that makes us human. It affects not only the way the body works, but also the physical itself. Have you ever noticed that people who are always under stress look tired and older than their age? Very often, a lack of mental health leads to emotional problems and even affects physical health. People are exposed to stress in many forms and degrees. But stress, which is less than a good mental state, is one of the most common causes of anxiety and depression.
To ensure that you take care of your mental health, you must learn to observe mental self-care. This will help you recognize situations, events and people that cause you stress. So you know how best to manage them when necessary.
Ideas for mental Self-care
- Don’t hesitate to say “no” to others when you need time for yourself.
- Read books and listen to music according to your mood.
- Avoid stress as much as you can.
- Avoid being around toxic people.
- Always challenge every negative thought. Negative thoughts are likely to pop up from time to time, but the key is to recognize them and prevent them from dominating you.
Spiritual Self-care
Spiritual self-care is a set of rituals and practices we do to foster our connection with our higher self. It consists of actions we take to deepen the connection between ourselves and our “higher self” or the part of us that wants and needs to connect with something bigger than ourselves. It is important to note that spiritual self-care does not necessarily have to be tied to a particular religion or spiritual practice. It doesn’t necessarily have to involve religion in any way, nor does it have to focus on religion.
Practicing spiritual self-care not only leads to more inner peace. It can also help us live more in alignment with our core values. It can also connect us to our true selves, the real us.
Exercises to make Spiritual contact
- Regular meditation (meditation is one of the most effective methods of connecting with the higher self as it has numerous benefits). This will help you connect with your source, essence, spirit and core of your being.
- Read spiritual books.
- Meditation to the higher power you believe in.
- Spreading kindness or helping those in need.