Self-care is all about taking the love, attention, time, affection, kindness, compassion and care and directing it inwards; toward the self. Taking good care of yourself entails looking out for yourself by engaging in activities and practices that boost your wellbeing, it’s about being good to yourself in all the ways that you generally would be towards others. Self-awareness is an important component of a good self-care practice as it helps you gauge which areas of your life need more attention and how to better care for yourself.
Self-love is also an imperative entity to self-care as it fuels self-care activities by being a form of motivation or reason to invest in activities that are nurturing for the self.
Self-care is essential for everybody and a regular self-care practice leads to a plethora of benefits, from preventing burnout, boosting self-worth, helps you avoid unhealthy behaviour, enables you to regulate or process challenging emotions encourages you to engage in health coping mechanisms. So what types of activities count as self-care practices? First off, it is best to have a regular self-care practice that resonates with and can easily become part of your current lifestyle, as well as engaging in a self-care routine that is affordable and relatively affordable for you. To get you started, why not engage in a self-care challenge to find what works for you? Here are some self-care ideas to kick start your self-care journey:
MEDITATE
Meditation helps to draw us deeper into the present moment, it helps us to live in the moment and become more aware of not only ourselves but also of our environment. Meditation can help reduce anxiety and stress and makes us feel good by boosting positive emotions! You can learn to meditate by trying out the 7 Days of Calm program on the Calm App (www.calm.com)
JOURNAL
If you are looking for a trustworthy space in which to offload and let go of or release all the negative emotions and experiences you might go through on a daily basis, one the best and most judgment-free zone to do so is keep a journal where you can vent on a daily basis. To be more specific, keeping a gratitude journal wherein you can document all the things that you are thankful for in your life can teach you how to have a more positive outlook on life and to maximise in the pleasurable feelings that positive experiences bring. You can engage in a 21 Day Self-Love Journal Journey that I designed here, www.beautyboois.com complete with daily journaling prompts.
REST & RELAX
Taking a break from your busy schedule to rest and relax by lighting some scented candles for aromatherapy benefits, getting about 8 hours of sleep every night, engaging in deep breathing exercises that boost the body’s relaxation response, taking a long bath or indulging in a warm cup of tea are all examples of how you can care for yourself by resting and relaxing.
Beauty Boois (@beautyboois)
