Are you the one who immerses yourself in his professional life
neglecting his health and well-being and having no time to even think about it or are you the one who hardly finds time to indulge in activities you love to do
as your hands are full due to work and responsibilities or are you the one who
wants to enjoy himself, eat, play and merry? Still, pressures created by work, life
and people around you have bogged you down. The daily grind, the pressure, the
call of duty and responsibility and the result will always be there for you and
in today’s world, they are inseparable from your entity. So in between the busy schedule,
daily rush and cut-throat world of competition, let us take out some time to
take care of ourselves and make it part of our daily life. We can call it self-care
or the care of self and it should have some daily rituals to adopt some healthy
choices to ease out the pressure created on our body, mind and soul.
What is self-care
Giving priority to oneself can be sometimes called
selfishness, but it is not about being selfish, but showing some generosity
towards yourself to indulge in something which makes you a happy, healthy and
calm person. It is all about how to heal yourself and take care of your
health and well-being by following some daily rituals. You need to take out time
to do some simple chores daily for yourself so that they can keep you in a healthy space and make you feel balanced and nurtured.
We have a complicated relationship with self-care as we can
take out time for work, responsibilities, kids and family but we can give a million reasons for not taking care of ourselves. So, we need to write down
ideas that actually we can do to create a self-care activity list.
1. Physical self-care
Physical
self-care is all about taking good care of your body as well as your overall health. You
need to manage your health in order to be physically fit and active and at the
same time ensure to give yourself rest and do not to over-exert yourself. Go for
regular medical checkups if required, to ease out the ills faced by your body
and mind. Eat healthy food and keep your energy levels high by indulging in
your favourite physical activity while understanding the signals of your body.
Other rituals that you can also follow are:
a. Get fresh
air in your lungs while enjoying a daily walk to increase energy levels and
feel better.
b. Aim for 7-8
hours of sleep to give your mind and body proper rest.
c. 15 minutes
of yoga or any other exercise to energize your body.
d. Start your
morning by drinking warm water with lemon to supply a fresh dose of vitamin C
and increase overall metabolism.
e. Drink 8-10
glasses of water to stay hydrated, flush toxins, boost skin health and maintain
blood pressure.
f. Eat fresh
fruits and veggies to ensure gut health.
g. Get exposed
to 15 minutes of bright morning sunlight to get the optimal amount of vitamin D.
2. Spiritual
self-care
Spiritual
self-care is the way to get connected to your inner self and nourish your true
self which is not your body but your soul. Spirituality is not have anything to do
with religion but with everything related to our soul. The practice of spiritual
self-care frees your mind from negativities and calms all its turbulences of it.
You will feel your inner peace and get clarity on what makes you happy. To start spiritual self-care you can start to:
a. Cut down on interaction with toxic people as it is of no use to embrace negativity all the
time.
b. Take out
some time for meditation daily, it will help to calm you as well as improve concentration
and memory.
c. Sing to
your heart's content as singing can lower your stress level, boost immunity and
enhance memory and mental health.
d. Go to the place
of worship to feel relieved and relaxed, as your concentration will improve
while focusing on the deity.
e. Spending time
in nature helps you clear your thought process and helps you learn to
empathize with a living being.
3. Mental
self-care
Mental
self-care is about the stimulation we provide to our brain to keep it active,
working and healthy. We can improve our brain functions by proper rest as well
as indulging in activities that we enjoy but can’t do in our daily life like
puzzles, reading books and painting. All these activities of mental self-care help
us keep our brains healthy. Engaging in mental self-care activities helps reduce
or eliminate anxiety and depression and increases the happiness quotient. A few steps
that we can take for mental care are:
a. Reread a
book you love and it will keep your mind active, and brain muscles stronger and help
to improve your memory skills.
b. Solve a
puzzle to create a sense of calm in your mind as puzzles engage your mind and
reduce stress.
c. Playing
chess helps reduce dementia in the elderly, it challenges memory, calculations and
critical thinking ability.
d. Writing a
daily journal helps to recall things, stimulates the mind, reduces stress and
provides clarity in thoughts and feelings.
e. Taking a break once a week can help maintain mental health and calm our brain. Keep some time to yourself to do nothing and relax.
4. Social
self-care
Social self-care involves connecting and maintaining
connections with people like our friends, relatives, family members living
away, etc. To connect with your close circle of friends emotionally and maintain
reasonable and strong relations with those who are not so far needs time and effort
from both sides. But you need to figure out how you can nurture your
relationship with people you feel close to.
a. Meet old friends
whenever time permits, and have lunch dates with them.
b. Spend time
with family and make regular calls to those who live far away.
c. Try communicating
verbally more often than via emails or WhatsApp messages.
d. Offer
comments generously on social media to show your love and appreciation for
them.
e. Encourage others
in your group to talk about them.
Our close friends and family are the ones we need most
when we are happy, in a mood to celebrate, ill or sad. Maintain good relationships
with your inner self to be cheerful and confident and make self-care rituals a
part of your life.
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