How to Practice Self-Care
When was the last time a bath bomb changed your life? Or a face roller? Or a scented candle for that matter? While these products are certainly nice to have, learning how to practice self-care is a lot more involved than throwing another item in your cart.
Your real self-care needs are important, they’re substantial, and they’re often hard to pinpoint.
The best way to practice self-care is to identify your current needs when it comes to your physical body, your mind, and your soul. Self-care is all about taking a holistic approach making sure to properly care for every part of yourself which leads to feelings of happiness and satisfaction.
Just think of the last time you felt completely overwhelmed. You were probably stressed, tired, and overworked. You knew you needed something like quiet, rest, or downtime. But at that moment, all you could focus on was the anxiety building up and feeling like you were ready to burst.
The problem is that most people are never taught how to practice self-care the right way for them.
Marketers are more than happy to tell you that their product is the only one that you need in order to feel at peace. But is it really?
You’re a person unlike any other in the world which means your self-care needs are unique to you. So figuring out how to practice self-care in a way that feels authentic to you should be the priority in your life — not buying yet another product.
Self-care is a huge determining factor in how our days, our weeks, our months, and our years go. If you’re successful at practicing self-care, your life will be immeasurably better than it will if you keep brushing it off.
Studies show that your physical and mental health will be greatly impacted by a self-care routine, but so will your soul.
Think of the last time you were standing in line somewhere and the person in front of you was screaming at the cashier.
Many thoughts went through your head about that person at the time. But was one of them if only he/she had purchased a body butter today this never would have happened? Probably not.
There are certainly people in the world who’re just awful human beings thriving on hurting others.
But most people are just doing their best to get by. And oftentimes, they lose their cool because they’re overwhelmed with life and they don’t have the skills to properly take care of their own needs.
Now think about the last time you lost it on your partner or your children for no reason. You’re not a jerk. You just needed something at that moment and you weren’t getting it.
Real self-care helps people be their best. It helps them feel good. And it helps them feel at peace.
Does an eye mask or a hand cream make your body feel better for a minute? Sure.
Does it strip your mind of all worry? I don’t think so.
So when you’re learning how to practice self-care, remember that it should take care of all of your needs — not just some of them.
Your body, your mind, and your soul are all important parts of you. And they should all be cared for fully.
Self-Care for Your Body
Wondering the right way to practice self-care for your body? Here are 10 tips to help you get started:
1. Stay Hydrated
Hydration keeps your body in balance. Drink plenty of filtered water and jazz it up with fruit, vegetable, and herb infusions. Don’t forget to limit your intake of caffeine, high-calorie drinks, and alcohol.
2. Eat Healthy Foods
Organic, whole foods are fuel for your body and keep you feeling energized. The more you eat something, the more you crave it. So, avoid sodium, sugar, and processed foods as much as possible.
3. Commit to an Active Lifestyle
You don’t have to belong to a gym to commit to an active lifestyle. Move around at least once an hour, park further away from the door, and find physical activities you enjoy doing like playing basketball, taking a walk on the beach, or going sledding. The little things add up to be big things when it comes to living an active lifestyle so get moving.
4. Breathe Fresh, Clean Air
You know that you have to breathe air to stay alive, but did you know that breathing fresh, clean air can help you in many other ways too? This is especially true when you practice breathing exercises. So be sure to get outdoors and away from pollution, focus on breathing in and out, and increase your brain activity while you decrease your stress and anxiety.
5. Soak Up The Rays
The sun gets a bad rap when it comes to skin cancer, but there are also a lot of health benefits to soaking up the rays. Basking in the sunshine increases your serotonin levels which boosts your mood and it also increases your vitamin D levels which helps your bones and your immune system.
6. Prioritize a Deep Sleep Routine
A deep sleep routine is an important part of self-care for your body. So prioritize a good night’s sleep every night by sticking to a schedule, avoiding caffeine later in the day, limiting screen time before bed, and setting a comfortable temperature in your home.
7. Use Safe Products
Safe products work great without exposing you to unnecessary toxic ingredients. Buy natural and organic products whenever possible so you can avoid the pesticides, toxic chemicals, and fragrances that are found in many foods, cleaning supplies, and beauty products.
8. Take Care of Your Skin
You may have heard that skin is the largest organ in your body, but did you know that you have roughly 20 square feet of skin? That’s impressive! Make sure to take care of your largest organ by using sunscreen liberally, exfoliating your dead skin cells, moisturizing regularly, and performing skin self-exams to look for abnormalities.
9. Treat Yourself
Treating yourself is another great way to make sure that your physical needs are being met. So, whether it’s a float and massage combo that helps you feel restored or a fun night out with friends sampling expensive whiskey, it’s good for you to splurge on yourself once in a while.
10. Seek Professional Care
Just because it’s called self-care doesn’t mean only you can be involved. Seeking professionals as part of your self-care routine ensures that your body is being taken care of. See your primary care doctor regularly for health assessments and consider seeing other professionals who can also care for your body like chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, and massage therapists.
Self-Care for Your Mind
Now that you’re an expert on self-care for your body, it’s time to explore self-care for your mind. Here are 10 tips to consider:
1. Accept Who You Are
One of the most important gifts you can give to yourself is accepting who you are as a person. You were not born to be who others want you to be. You have your own thoughts, feeling, desires, and needs so be honest about who you are.
2. Learn to Love Yourself
You will always find people who are better, smarter, or more attractive than you if that’s what you’re looking for. It’s important to recognize that you are worthy of love just the way you are and that you have a lot to offer the world too.
3. Master Positive Self-Talk
Mastering positive self-talk is huge when it comes to self-care for your mind. The voice you have inside your head is powerful. If you allow negative self-talk, it will drag you down and destroy your self-confidence. But if you master positive self-talk, it will lift you up and build your self-confidence.
4. Maintain Your Work-Life Balance
Your career pays the bills but it should never be the main focus of your life. Maintain a strict work-life balance and leave your work where it belongs — at work.
5. Avoid the News
Unless you plan on running for office soon, there’s no reason you need to know everything happening around the world every day. The media is full of bad news, sad news, and fake news so try to avoid as much negativity as possible.
6. Limit Bad Social Media Interactions
There is a huge difference between good social media interactions and bad social media interactions. Staying in touch with family and catching up with friends is good for your mental health. Arguing publicly with your ex or comparing your life to others’ highlight reel is bad for your mental health. Avoid the bad.
7. Declutter Your Life
A lot of anxiety, stress, and anger are a result of being completely overwhelmed with life. Looking for a huge boost to your mental health? Declutter your life by turning off notifications, unsubscribing from unwanted lists, and clearing out your home.
8. Learn to Say No
Did you know that you can actually say no to most things? Stop overscheduling yourself out of obligation and let someone else volunteer for a change.
9. Prioritize Your Mental Health
The best way to start taking care of your mental health is by admitting that you need to take care of your mental health. Make your happiness a priority before you worry about anyone else’s.
10. Work With a Professional
Let go of the mental health stigma and work with a professional when you need to. There is nothing wrong with talking to someone and getting medication when you need it. There is something wrong with ignoring your symptoms and continuing to suffer though.
Self-Care for Your Soul
And while you’re practicing self-care, don’t forget to also pamper your soul. Here are 10 tips to help you out:
1. Discover Your Higher Purpose
Souls crave a higher purpose. And discovering your own higher purpose in life will help you stay focused and energized to meet all of your goals.
2. Surround Yourself With Positive People
The people you spend the most time with affect your own life in immeasurable ways. So be sure to surround yourself with positive people who uplift you and remind you to live your best life.
3. Practice Meditation
Meditation is all about slowing down, breathing deeply, and actively listening to your feelings, thoughts, and desires. It encourages your soul to enjoy the present moment without any distractions.
4. Say Daily Affirmations
Daily affirmations are simple yet powerful statements that help to build you up. You can think about them in your mind or say them aloud.
5. Spend Time in Nature
Spending time in nature helps your soul feel balanced and peaceful. It helps you clear your mind of clutter so you can focus on the higher meaning of life.
6. Create a Happy Home
You deserve a happy home where you feel safe and relaxed. Anything that gets in the way of this, needs to go.
7. Practice Yoga
Yoga is great exercise but it’s also meditative, and it provides you time for contemplation.
8. Live Intentionally
Choosing to live a life that is intentional and purpose-driven will help you focus your energy on what really matters to you. It’s all about creating your ideal life and truly enjoying it.
9. Make a Habit of Writing
Writing helps to release all of the thoughts you have bottled up and to discover new things about yourself. Journaling is great, but if it’s not your thing, writing fiction or non-fiction is just as powerful.
10. Look for Professional Guidance
Just like seeking professional help to care for your body or mind, you can also look for professional guidance when it comes to your soul. Speak with either religious or spiritual leaders when you to boost self-care for your soul.
Sources
- Healthline: What Are the Benefits of Sunlight?
- The National Center For Biotechnology Information: Benefits of Sunlight: A Bright Spot for Human Health
- The National Center For Biotechnology Information: Dear Mental Health Practitioners, Take Care of Yourselves: a Literature Review on Self-Care
- The National Center For Biotechnology Information: Harnessing the Four Elements for Mental Health
- WebMD: Picture of the Skin
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What are your favorite forms of self-care? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
This is a wonderful list – very thorough! I love taking social media breaks – they’re so good for self-care for me! I’m also huge on good sleep hygiene, drinking lots of fluids and trying to eat right (sometimes I do fall off that wagon – whoops). Still learning to say no and saying positive self affirmations – thank you for the reminders for those. This post is one I’ll certainly come back to 🙂 Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear that. It sounds like you are doing a great job taking care of yourself and you know where you need to improve.
This is a great post and an amazing reminder. Thank you for sharing.
I’m glad you appreciated it.
Wow this is a great post! I love the tips for self-care for the mind, really helpful – thanks for sharing!
So happy to help.
Great post, I think it’s crazy that some brands are jumping on the self care stuff to flog their products. It’s true, you only need the things you mention. Hydration for me is a big one!
Rosie
It’s amazing how much better you feel when you stay hydrated.
Some really helpful ways to practice self care. Love that most of them are natural as well. Although I love a bath bomb and bubble baths definitely help you absolutely can’t rely on them!
Yes! I love how you put it. Products are great but you can’t rely on them alone to feel your best.
Love how you split them into body, mind & soul as they all need looking after in completely different ways!
Agreed
Lovely post! We definitely need to practice self-care from inside and outside. Read a book, watch a movie, walk outside, or just by doing things you love also part of self-care for me 🙂 Thanks for sharing your list x
I’m so glad you think so. Thank you.
I love this post so much. So important to practice self care without buying a bunch of unnecessary product!
And the best part is there are a ton of ways to take care of ourselves too.
This is an important post. There are so many ways to practice self care that doesn’t consist of all the nonsense products that are marketed to us. I find those things can often be more distracting than allowing us to really sit with our thoughts and learn how to care for our own mental well being.
I love this! Having too many products can definitely distract us from what’s really important.
Organic food still exposes you to pesticides, insecticides, and fungicides, it’s a myth and a brilliant piece of marketing that makes people think they don’t use these products. Also, if you want to stay alive, you can’t avoid chemicals as literally all matter is made of chemicals
Organic foods may have trace amounts due to cross-contamination, but it’s far less than conventional foods so your exposure to known cancer-causing pesticides is also far less. We’ll have to agree to disagree on that. Furthermore, you can and should avoid toxic chemicals whenever possible which is what I stated in this post.
One of the things that’s so beautiful about self-care is that it really IS different for everyone. And while a bath bomb or face roller might not help you with your self-care journey, I know for me, taking a bath or doing a skincare routine actually is a really effective way of loving my own self and bringing peace to my mind, body, and soul. It’s a very personal experience, that’s for sure. And yes, while products don’t always provide a solution, I definitely appreciate some of them for the way they can produce *additional* support in a self-care routine 🙂
I completely agree with you about products providing additional support. That’s a great way to put it.
Self-care for the mind and soul are my favourite – we spend way too much time on our external features. Inner wellness is as important as physical wellness and good to see that on your article. Thank you for sharing 🙂
So true! And all of the marketers are constantly telling us our outward appearance is the most important. It’s just not so.
Yes to this post! Its so true and important to remember that you don’t need fancy things to be able to do self care. Instead, we should all focus on the basics because that will help us feel better about ourselves in the long run.
I love what you said — get back to the basics. That really is all we need.
It’s a great post. Proper sleep, moving around, and taking care of our body, mind, and souls means real self-care rather than living under the illusion of self-care. I agree with you that it’s no harm to seek professional help when one can’t do it alone.
Sara xx
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for your lovely comment.
Great list! I agree self care is more than just material goods but products do help me haha I tend to work on myself everyday and not just have specific days or times for “self care” which includes most of your list here 🙂 Nutrition and movement are both important to me in my daily routine! Thanks for sharing.
I’m glad that you get enjoyment out of both products and self-care that does not include material goods. Keep up the good work.
Wonderful post! I love that you covered body, mind and soul! Like you, I believe self-care is about more than using a bath bomb. Although pampering ourselves can be a loving act, there needs to be more to our self-care routine than that and your suggestions are spot on. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you for your lovely comments. I’m glad this post resonated with you.