Taking action on your self-care
Taking action on your Self-care
Self-care can be a vague and broad term, so the definition I found that explains it best is “The deliberate and self-initiated practice to look after one’s wellbeing” and doing that through healthy lifestyle choices and mindful daily habits.
The most important word in that explanation is self. It is solely about you, so therefore you are going to be the one who takes matters into your own hands.
If you wish to see change, you have to take action, try different things, see what works and what you will enjoy doing everyday.
Here are some ways to get started:
Personal self-care
Some questions to journal about to get clear on things you will stick with. What do you do for fun? What are your hobbies? What do you enjoy and what makes you happy?
Personal self-care means learning and discovering who you really are. It’s about having self-love and finding your path.
Physical self-care
Making a list of healthy lifestyle choices and doing through which ones you want to implement is a good place to start. What physical activities do you enjoy and like to regularly? Focus on healthy eating making little changes. Hydrate. Make regular appointments to take care of your body especially things that bring you joy.
Emotional self-care
Emotional self-care means allowing your self to feel emotions and deal with them in a healthy productive manner. The more you know yourself the more effectively you will express them. Explore your personal development, are you dragging emotional baggage around with you and is it weighing you down?
Mental self-care
Mental self-care means taking care of your mental state. Taking time to meditate, practice breathing techniques. Taking time to journal your thoughts, reflect on you and your day. Practicing mindfulness and being present throughout the day will be important part of your practice. Routines and habits help to structure the day, relaxing the mind.
Spiritual self-care
Spiritual self-care is about taking care of the soul, or the inner self. Connecting to the inner self gives you access to your inner wisdom, listening to your inner voice will guide you to what you really need. Energy techniques such as grounding, letting go, will deepen that inner journey.
Professional self-care
Professional self-care means practicing self-care while at work and having a healthy work life balance. Taking time before and after work to prepare and detach from the day. Setting inner boundaries around your work and balancing your workload.
Taking care of body, mind and spirit can cause many positive shifts in our life. Self-care is a personal journey for everyone. It’s all about finding out what works, finding strategies and approaches that work best for you to use on a daily basis and boost your wellbeing on a long-term basis. Start small and be consistent.
Taking action in a deliberate and self-initiated fashion isn’t always easy and take a huge amount of will power to get started. Track your progress, schedule self-care in your diary.
If you are struggling with self-care in any of these areas or find you are coming against resistance within when setting a practice, contact me for a free 15 minute call at www.geraldineryancoaching.com
