I’m sure you’ve heard of self-care before. I’m sure you even know that you should be practising self-care, but do you actually know how too? I’ve been there! I know it can be overwhelming with all of the information out there so I’m going to show you exactly how you can start so you can walk away knowing how to practise self-care from today onwards.
♡ Take care of your physical self
Taking care of your body can seem like such a simple aspect of self-care but funny enough, it’s forgotten just as often as the other ways.
When we think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the first section of the pyramid is Physiological Needs. Before we can even consider moving onto the next layers, we need to ensure we are ticking that layer off properly.
There are multiple things to consider here when taking care of your body. Maslow specifically mentions the following:
· Breathing
· Drinking water
· Eating food (specifically, nourishing food)
· Having safe, warm shelter
· Getting enough sleep
· Reproduction/ sex
Whilst these are obviously required to live as a human being, there are a few other points I feel are important to mention here:
· Exercising regularly
· Seeing a professional when required (for example, doctors or dentists)
· Physically taking care of your body (for example, brushing your teeth, washing your hair or taking medication)
Maslow’s specific categories are usually things we do on auto-pilot. We all breathe, drink water, eat food and so on, sometimes we don’t do them in the healthiest way, such as eating junk food or pulling all-nighters, but we do them. We often forget about those other important factors to make sure we're taking care of ourselves and that’s where we let ourselves down. That’s where we start to struggle.
♡ Take care of your mind
This is the part where things can get tricky because how do you take care of your mind? Do you stuff it full of knowledge? Do you keep it running non-stop? Taking care of your mind will look different for each person and that’s okay. After all, we all have different minds, right?
Here are my favourite ways of taking care of my mind:
· Meditating regularly
· Journaling daily
· Exercising (also mentioned in taking care of your body so you can earn double points here!)
· Seeing a counsellor
· Practising yoga
When you’re looking for ways to take care of your mind, think of the times where you’re calm, relaxed and careless. What are you doing in those moments? It’s most likely that’s where you’ll find what’s going to work for you.
Again, everybody is going to do this differently and that’s okay. Find what works for you and don’t worry too much about what everybody else is doing.
♡ Do things that make you feel good
Sounds simple, right?
I wish I could say it was that simple but how much of your day do you spend actually doing things that make you feel good? Think about this…
You have 24 hours in a day. The same amount as me, Michelle Obama, Tony Robbins. The same as everybody else. We all have 24 hours. Now, consider what you do in those 24 hours. I’m hoping you spend at least 8 hours sleep, which leaves you with 16 hours. I’m going to take away a few more hours for cooking and eating and exercising. Now, you have 14 hours.
Now, I’m not going to include your work in those hours for one simple reason. We all have to work, that’s life. Majority of us actually don’t truly enjoy what we do for work. We may like the pay, the colleagues or some of the work we do, but in reality, the majority of us wouldn’t do what we do if we weren’t paid. I’ve been there and I know what that feels like – it SUCKS.
This leaves you with FOURTEEN hours a day which you have to do something that makes you feel good. That’s more than half your day.
So, how are you going to spend it? What are you going to do during those hours?
If I lost you with the work section (or maybe you're working your dream career), consider taking 8 hours off of that again and you still have six hours a day to do something that feels good.
How are you making yourself feel good every single day?
I want to challenge you to create a Bliss List. This is simply where you sit down and write 50 things that make you feel good. They can cost money, they can be everyday tasks. Literally anything at all that makes you feel good. A few of my examples are:
· Playing with my son
· Eating my lunch outside in the fresh air and sunshine
· Massages (who doesn’t love a massage, honestly?)
Once you have your list, choose two things to do off of it every single day. It’s non-negotiable. You NEED to do these things to lead a happy, healthy life.
I know a lot of the information in this post is common knowledge, but I also know that a lot of us ignore it. I want you to live the brightest life possible, and it starts with bringing it back to the common knowledge.
A great way to kick-start your self-care journey is by downloading my 30 Days Of Self-Care. I have created it to bring you back to basics and remember the smaller stuff that makes a huge impact on your life later. Just print it out and pop it on your wall and select one act of self-care per day for the next 30 days and then see the difference for yourself. Super easy and super fun!
With love
Shorina xo
Counsellor + Wellness & Mental Health Coach
Hi, I'm Shorina and I'm an Australian Counsellor + Wellness & Mental Health Coach. I'm here to support you to redefine your relationship to self and life! I incorporate a mind, body and soul wellness approach to my work with a focus on healing and mindfulness ♡