Self Care is an incredibly important part of looking after your mental health, physical health, and your health in general.
Self Care is defined as the actions we can take as individuals to help maintain or heighten our health, wellbeing and wellness.
In terms of mental health then, self care is a valuable tool.
You don’t have to be struggling mentally to indulge in self care strategies, in fact, I believe it’s import to make self care a part of your regular routine, in order to help maintain your mental health.
Self Care has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, and can help with focus or refocusing.
I’ve been incorporating self care strategies into my regular routine for years, and have found them to make a huge difference to my overall wellbeing.
My favourite self care strategies:
- Having a cup of tea – sitting with a warm cup of tea in my hands and savouring every sip is very comforting to me and is also a good exercise in mindfulness.
- Taking a relaxing bath – nourishing your body whilst giving yourself some nice relaxation time is a perfect self care strategy. I usually follow it up by slathering my body in nourishing coconut oil too for extra “self care points”.
- Yoga – shown to be great for mental health (as well as physical). I’m really trying to get myself into the habit of having an everyday yoga practice. If anyone has any tips to help me stay on track, let me know!
- Meditation – this can be a tough one to get into the habit of. I really enjoy using guided meditations from the internet, and I’m quite partial to a good “body scan” style meditation.
- Lighting candles, burning incense or essential oils – I usually do this in conjunction with another self care strategy. I find it helps calm me quite a lot and I simply really enjoy do it.
- Massage – this is something I splash out on probably once a month or less, due to the financial side of things. But it’s such a nourishing, relaxing and healing experience for me mentally and physically, as I have back problems that it aids as well, so it’s well worth the money for me. Double win!
Great tips, I see a massage therapist once a month and that really has helped me a lot.