Our lives will always have difficulties that others may never understand. We should never forget that even though others may want to reach out to us and help us, the only person who can ever care more about you is yourself: self-care.
To take care of ourselves, we have to know what it is we should be focusing on. In this mini-guide, we look at the 7 essential tips that can help you be the best version of you to tackle life’s great difficulties.
1. Express Yourself Freely Through Writing
Sometimes we need a healthy outlet for our overwhelming emotions. Other times, we want to entertain some thoughts, bounce new ideas, and plan our life.
Journaling gives us a chance to listen and think to ourselves. As a tool, it allows us to speak our minds without the influence of social norms, criticism, or judgment. Deliberate writing has shown a positive effect on reducing anxious feelings and depression. It’s why we see this method repeatedly preached as one of the great ways to relieve stress and practice self-care.
You can learn more about journaling and how you can start one on the URMC website.
2. Enjoy the Sunshine and Fresh Outdoor Air
Without movement, there is no life. We should always be on the go so our bodies can stay active and our minds can be well. The body needs exercise to keep itself healthy and happy.
Simply walking outdoor can provide a lot of benefits to both your physical and mental well-being. You can adopt an outdoor activity like hiking and sailing to make life a little more interesting.
Learn more about walking and exercise, visit HelpGuide.org.
3. Sleep Well and Sleep Consistently
When we aren’t taking good care of ourselves, sleep is usually one of the first things to go out the window. Our sleep is unsurprisingly tied to many aspects of our lives.
When we throw our sleep out the window, we also throw our internal clocks out of sync. We might need the next day or the entire week to get back to our normal selves.
If we sleep well, we can better control our mood and emotions, remember things better, and it also plays a large role in our physical recover as the body makes repairs during this time of rest. Getting better sleep is amazing self-care
You can learn more about sleep and the best practices of it at MySleepyFerret.
4. Eat Well and Keep Healthy Food Around
Food provides the fuel for our body and mind. It gives us the energy to get things done throughout the day. When we put the right food in our mouths, we can feel better and have the energy to accomplish what we set our minds on doing.
We can’t tell you what exactly your diet should consist of since everybody is different. Some research is necessary and speaking to your family doctor or nutritionist is important.
There are some guidelines we can use to help us think critically about what we are eating and what our eating patterns are like. According to the U.S. dietary guidelines of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, we seem to be taking in too much sodium, saturated fats, and sugars. We can also see from the charts we do not have enough intake of vegetables, fruits, and total grains.
You can also learn more about healthy eating and make a printout of a useful diagram as a reminder of eating healthy at Harvard T.H. Chan.
5. Take Care of Your Bedroom, and Home to Take Care of Yourself
Our home can be a reflection of our minds. The more cleaned, well-organized, and kept together they are, the better our minds and our feelings toward ourselves can be.
Over time, it’s easy to forget about cleaning our home, and it can get to a point where our homes can make us sick. We can fall ill due to allergies, from food poisoning, or from pollution of some sort.
Much of our lives can be out of our control. What we can control is what is in front of us, and our home is arguably the closest to something we can improve.
Clean the clutter. Organize your bedroom for cleanliness and beauty. Make your bed a place for sleep and sex. Take good care of yourself because you deserve it. At least from there, whenever we have a bad day, we can always come home to somewhere great.
For more information and insights on decluttering your home effectively, check out ZenHabits.
6. Listen to Others and Help Them When They’re in Need
We as humans are social creatures. Without love and support, we suffer terribly. When we socialize and interact with others, we learn from one another and can contribute to each other’s’ lives. The health benefits are real, especially for our mental well-being and self-care.
Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to socialize. You can use social media tools to arrange times for phone calls and meeting in person. You can also visit a local community center or join local social and hobby groups. Who knows. You might find a friend or two for life.
You can learn more about socializing at PsychologyToday.
7. Do Things That Make Your Life Better
This might seem obvious. Sometimes we need a reminder. It’s easy to let your inhibitions and impulsiveness take ahold of your day. It’s also easy to begin eating unhealthy, sleeping late, sit in front of a computer all day, let your home become a mess, and isolate yourself socially. We know these are inherently wrong. There’s no question about it, yet somehow we lose control.
That’s ok. Dust yourself off and start doing things that make your life better. Whenever you fall off the wagon, you can ask yourself three questions:
- Pick a hot spot in your life, like your relationships or career. Ask yourself where are you now?
- Where do you want to be?
- What obstacles might be in your way, and what can you do about them?
Asking yourself these questions (maybe in the form of a journal entry like self-care tip #1) can help you break cyclical unhelpful behaviors that make our lives a little worse each day. It also makes you think and find solutions instead of focusing on any negativity that can be holding you back.
When you start taking action and doing things to make you better, we might run into some resistance. What we do might not be perfect, could be wrong or it might not work out, but at least we won’t be in doubt about ourselves.
Final Thoughts on Self-Care
It’s easy to forget the few essential things we can do to truly take care of ourselves. We hope this mini-guide serves as a reminder of the simple things we can do today to make our lives easier, better, and more enjoyable.
Meet the Author
This post was written by Brian Ferret. Brian is
