Tips for Self-Care

It’s likely you’ve heard the word Self-Care thrown around. But what is it? Self-care is defined as “the

 practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health.”  It seems like over the past year, the concept of self-care has become more and more important.

You can’t pour from an empty glass so we need to find time to fill our glass by focusing on our mental and physical health. It’s easy to let the stress and pressure of life wear on us, so we need to find a way to refocus and find what makes us happy.

Self-Care doesn’t look the same for everyone. What works for one person may not necessarily work for another so here are some tips to help you find what works best for you.

1. MAKE THE TIME FOR SELF-CARE: Make yourself a priority and put it on the schedule. You read that right...if you schedule it in, you are more likely to follow through. This could be as little as 10-15 minutes in the morning to focus on you, or this could be a full day getaway. When you plan your week, plan the time YOU need to focus on yourself. 
2. GET PHYSICAL: Getting active is not only healthy for you physically, it can be a great mental release. Finding a physical activity you love is a great way to boost your mood and energize you. 
3. MINDSET IS EVERYTHING: Learning to focus on the positive can make a huge difference for your mental health. Even on what seems like a bad day, it’s likely there is something good that happened. Focusing on the good, or even writing it down, is great for your mental health.
4. MEDITATE: Revive your mind with a little mediation. There are different ways to meditate and a successful mediation may look different for everyone. A few examples include mindfulness meditation that focuses on being present, relaxation meditation (similar to how we end our SPENGA sessions) that physically relaxes your body and mantra meditation that focuses on self-love and love of others. 
5. CHECK YOUR NUTRITION: A diet rich in nutrients is an important part of self-care. You can energize your mind and body by eating foods that fuel you and make you feel good physically. 
6. LEARN TO SAY “NO”: Many of us are naturally people pleasers and like to say yes to everyone. It’s okay to say no sometimes to things that we don’t want to do or things that don’t serve us. Self-care isn’t selfish and saying “no” when you need to isn’t either.
7. PRACTICE GRATITUDE: It’s amazing what a grateful heart can do for your mental state. Learning to find gratitude can boost your mood. This could be as simple as taking a few moments when you wake up to mentally identify your gratitude or keeping a gratitude journal to look back on. 
8. FIND WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY: When finding a self-care activity, find something that makes you happy. Maybe this is going for a run, taking a long bath, drinking your coffee in silence, or anything that makes you feel good, calm and refreshed.