What is self-care?
Self-Care is the collective set of practices that you engage in to make sure that you’re happy and healthy. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines it as “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker.”
However, the common understanding of self-care is somewhat less clinical. Self-care is a form of self-love that helps us maintain both physical and mental fitness. While the WHO’s definition of self-care is prescriptive, self-care is additive. It’s the practices that make us feel good — about ourselves, our futures, and our lives.
There are seven major types of self care;
1. Physical Self-Care
Physical self describes how an individual views his health condition, body, and physical appearance.
Physical self-care includes fueling your body, getting adequate sleep, participating in physical activities, and taking care of your physical needs. Making sure you’re attending medical appointments and taking medications as prescribed are also part of physical self-care.
Physical Self-Care Examples:
- Eat a healthy meal.
- Engage in exercise.
- Go for a walk.
- Drink water.
- Practice good sleep hygiene.
- Sit in the sunlight.
2. Social Self-Care
Establishing Close Connections is an important part of caring for your-self. However, socialization is not easy when you get overwhelmed with all of the other things that demand your attention. Socialization involves having a supportive group and network you can turn to when needed. As humans are by nature social beings, connection is important to all in whatever works for anyone. Activities like spending time with loved ones. reconnecting with old friends, striking up a conversation with someone are some of the examples of social activities.
3. Mental Self-Care
Mental self-care is all about fine-tuning your brain and helping your mind to stay healthy. Keeping our minds sharp is vital to things like our performance at work and making good decisions. It might also contribute to good brain health in the long-term.
Mental self-care can also relate to maintaining a healthy inner dialogue with ourselves. Building a positive mind set and working on your self-esteem are things you can work on as part of mental self-care. Positive Self talk has a major role to play in the state of our mental health.
Examples of Mental Self-care:
- Reading a book.
- Solving a puzzle.
- Engaging in self-compassion and acceptance.
4. Spiritual Self-Care
Spiritual Self-care is comprised of actions we take to deepen our connection with our higher self or like some people refer to it, our divine self: who we truly are. This part of ourselves is the REAL us, driven by our deep desires and what matters most to us at our core. It is separate from the ego, and is instead driven by the soul. Practicing spiritual self-care not only leads to greater inner peace, but it can help us live in greater alignment with our core values and morals.
Here are some strategies for practicing spiritual self-care:
- Practice Gratitude.
- Spend time in nature.
- Attend religious Service.
5. Emotional Self-Care
Our ability to regulate our emotions and cope with difficult feelings as they arise is vital to our happiness and overall quality of life. That’s why emotional self-care—the actions we take to connect with our emotions and process them in a healthy way—is SO very important.
While everyone can benefit from investing time and attention in this critical area of self-care, people who will find this particularly beneficial are those who:
- Have difficulty controlling their emotions.
- Are easily affected by others’ negative moods.
- Struggle to cope with feelings of shame, guilt, embarrassment, jealousy, anger, and/or feelings of unworthiness.
By regularly engaging in emotional self-care and learning to give yourself grace, you’ll be developing healthy coping mechanisms that vastly increase your happiness and sense of well-being.
6. Professional Self-Care
Professional self-care means using habits, processes, systems, and communities to make your work life sustainable. It’s not glamorous—it’s usually a lot of debriefing yourself after crises and creating battle plans for later—but it’s a vital, difficult, ever-evolving part of creating work-life balance and boundaries.
Similar to physical and mental self care professional self-care also involves the following:
- Eating well.
- Sleeping well.
- Reading a book that teaches something new.
- Practicing and developing skills.
- Having hobbies and interests that teach you things.
- celebrating wins.
7. Financial Self- Care.
Financial self-care is the effort you give to make specific plans and goals to create a better financial future, discover strategies to support a healthy money mindset, and concentrate your time and attention on your financial condition, among others. It is a form of self-care that focuses on improving financial matters—instead of emotional and physical ones.
How can we practice Financial self care?
- Track your spending to improve your finances.
- Create a realistic monthly budget.
- Build up your savings—even if it takes time.
- Pay your bills on time every month.
- Cut back on recurring charges.
- Save up cash to afford big purchases.
- Start an investment strategy.
–Self-care can have a positive effect on your health and overall outlook on what health really consists of, but it requires a ton of commitment or intention to invest in your well-being.
