Self-Care
What is self-care?
It can be defined as anything we choose to do to take care of our physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing. It includes the basic but often overlooked things like getting enough sleep, eating well and getting regular fresh air and exercise. However, self-care includes any activity that makes us feel good and that we enjoy. This will be different for everyone. Some may love hurtling downhill on a mountain bike while others may prefer to sit with a good book. The key thing to remember is that small daily acts of self-care are just as important as big events or activities.
An essential part of self-care is self-compassion: this is an idea we often find hard to get to grips with. We can sometimes be hard on ourselves but learning to talk to ourselves kindly and treat ourselves with compassion benefits our mental wellbeing. Regular acts of self-care and compassion can be very effective in managing our day to day physical and emotional wellbeing and experiencing new things can expose us to different opportunities and help us grow.
There are many ways to practice self-care; some examples are:
Listening to music
Getting coffee with a friend
Being out in nature
Pampering yourself
Taking up a new hobby
Lighting a scented candle
Watching your favourite movie
Mindfulness and Meditation
Getting creative
It’s ok not to want to do any of these things. It is ok to feel the way you feel, and it is ok not to be doing lots of activities.
Self-care and compassion can be about knowing it is totally ok to just slow things down and do very little for a while.
Have a look at our Unity resource for more self-care ideas.
