Learn How to Take Care of Yourself for a Happier Life

You can ask someone: “Do you take care of yourself?”, He will probably answer: “Yes, of course” without even thinking about it. But if you will ask him “In what ways you do take care of yourself?” he will start doubting his first answer. It is because practicing self-care isn’t easy for everyone, most of us tend to let their me-time the last on our agenda, or maybe sometimes feel guilty when taking time just for ourselves. 

It’s always challenging to stop our busy activities and think about our needs, especially if we have kids or a stressful job. It’s all a fact of priorities, learning to eat well, exercise, take pauses to breathe, and how reducing stress can keep you healthy, and peaceful, and give you more energy to handle your tough activities. 

To start, we should all know what self-care means exactly. 

 Self-care, in general, is all daily based activities that we do to take care of our needs. It’s a key to improving our physical and mental health, reducing anxiety, and having a good relationship with ourselves and others.

However, it can be unclear for some to know what is self-care and what isn’t. The difference is simple, Self-care should refuel you rather than drain you. 

Leading a stressful life, eating junk food all week, going to the gym, and exercising heavily will not help you to reduce stress or to be in a good health, taking into consideration what your body and mind need is what will be good for you. 

In brief, self-care is to live a balanced life. 

It’s all about balance 

That’s why you need to take care of yourself in different domains simultaneously: 

Where Should You Start?

First, make a list of what you would like to do, keep it on your agenda, and stick to it, which will help you to keep track of things that you like. Then, be aware of activities that boost your energy, and activities that consume you.  

Types of self-care:

Physical

Your body needs have to be met to function properly, habits such as: Getting adequate sleep, eating healthy food, exercising, and attending doctor appointments… are all part of good physical self-care. Start by adding some activities to your list of habits such as: Going for a walk, dancing, taking a bath, workout, or why not taking a nap to rest your body.

Social

Spending time with your close connections is important to your well-being, putting your time and energy into building healthy relationships is the key to fulfillment.
When coming to socializing, we are all different, extroverts, introverts, or ambiverts need different amounts of time around people. So be in touch with your social needs, and schedule activities with your friends, family members, or coworkers…

Emotional

Acknowledging and expressing your emotions is very important for your health, learn how to process emotions like sadness, anger, and grief regularly is a part of taking care of yourself. Keep a daily journal to write your negative thoughts and uncomfortable emotions, and talk to your closest friends or family about how you feel, if you feel exhausted, don’t be ashamed to seek support from people that cares for you, or from a specialist.

Mental

Mental self-care has two major forms: first, your brain is like a muscle that needs exercise, doing mind activities, like reading a book, learning a new subject, or playing puzzles can help you to keep your mind sharp; The second form is taking care of your mental health, by reducing stress in your life, practicing meditation and breathing exercises…
The connection between the mind and the body is very strong, so don’t forget to eat healthy food and to have enough sleep hours.