Self-care Practices for Everyday Life

You’re worth it

Leilani — Bipolarlifetime
Write It Forward
6 min readSep 28, 2021

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Source: Upslash.com

Everyday life is stressful no matter who you are. In time, that stress can quickly add up and overwhelm you unless you find ways to relieve it. One way that you can help reduce stress is to use self-care. Some people equate self-care with being selfish, but just like with an airplane oxygen mask, you need to take care of yourself before you are able to take care of others.

What is self-care

According to the World Health Organization, the definition of self-care is “the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.” Often when self-care comes up, it means talking about the individual, but a lot of the same advice given to individuals can apply to families as a whole or even the community at large. Practicing self-care should begin with the individual before it can apply to anything larger.

Emotional vs physical

Self-care in the individual can be broken into two categories: emotional and physical. Emotional self-care focuses on the mind and emotions. This kind of self-care includes changing your internal monologue and creating boundaries. Physical self-care can include keeping a schedule, uncluttering your surroundings, and prioritizing caring for your body.

Emotional self-care

Change your self-talk

One of the first ways you can practice self-care is to change your internal monologue. Too often people have negative thoughts about themselves and their surroundings. These negative thoughts can color the way they feel and how they act. Changing these thoughts can change the way people feel about life. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy exercises can help you work on those negative thoughts in a variety of ways including challenging negative thoughts and reframing them.

Stick to your boundaries

It can be hard to say “no” to people in your life. Taking on more than you can handle can add stress and make it hard to complete all your commitments. Other times, there are people in your lives that are negative influences and need to be distanced from. Practicing saying “no” and limiting time with negative influences in your life can be a good step in self-care.

Nurture your social life

Humans are social creatures and having other people in your life is another important part of self-care. With other people surrounding you, you will have help getting yourself out of the house, have someone to talk to, and have others to help in your life. Secluding yourself is a way to feel cut off from the world. Don’t neglect your social life. Just make sure that you are keeping positive influences in your life and distancing yourself from negative people.

Focus on controlling your emotions

Just as thoughts can influence how you can see or interact with the world, so can your emotions. Blowing up at the waitress for bringing your order wrong for the third time will do nothing but make you feel worse about the situation. Letting anxiety rule your life will also color how you see the world. Work on controlling your emotions. The goal is not to get rid of your emotions, but to express them in a constructive way. If you’re not sure how to get started, therapy can help you.

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is another way to start on self-care. Mindfulness can be a way to reframe your thoughts and help you get control of yourself in a stressful situation. There are a variety of ways to practice mindfulness, including trying to look at an object and see it in a new light to focusing on your body.

Journal

Sometimes writing down what you’ve been going through or how you’re feeling can be a good way to reduce stress. This is where journaling comes in. Journaling is another technique for self-care. Don’t just write about what’s happening in your life. Write about how you can address your stresses as well and, after putting those ideas into practice, how well your techniques worked. You will have a reminder of how different ideas worked for you in the past and think about whether using those techniques will be helpful in current situations.

Physical self-care

Pay attention to your body

Sometimes it can be hard to know how stressed you are. Every once in a while check in with your body to see how you’re feeling. Headaches and stomaches can be a sign that you’re stressed. Tense shoulders and neck can as well. Maybe in the moment you’re breathing hard or even having a panic attack. Pay attention to your physical feelings and then work on other self-care actions to decrease your stress level.

Keep a routine

An important way to practice physical self-care is to get a routine going. A routine can keep you from getting lost as to what you should do during the day or from forgetting to do some things throughout the day. Develop a routine starting from the minute you get up in the morning until you get to sleep. Include hygiene in your life such as getting a shower and brushing your teeth as this can go by the wayside if you get depressed or overly stressed. You don’t have to be completely rigid in your routine, but try to stick to it as best you can.

Stick to a good diet

You’ll hear it all the time: eat better. Eating better not only helps your physical health from a standpoint of your weight but also helps you feel better in general. Pay attention to what you put in your body. Eating cookies may sound like a good idea in the short term, but eating an apple might help you feel better in the long run.

Exercise

Just as you should eat well, you should also exercise to keep in good physical health. Exercising can also clear the mind. Doing cardio exercise can give you time to think about other things or ways to solve your problems. Getting in better physical health can make you feel better in general. Keep up with exercise by making it a part of your routine.

Practice sleep hygiene

Another thing that should be on your routine list is to practice sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene can put you on the path to getting better sleep. Sleep is essential for being able to have the energy to attack the day and minimize stress as well as to keep up your physical health.

Unclutter your surroundings and unclutter your mind

Clutter, whether in your mind or your surroundings, can only add to stress and confusion in your life. Clutter in the mind can include too many thoughts and too many things you have to juggle. Practice emotional-self care as well as write down things you have to do on a to-do list to help get some of those stressful thoughts out of your head. Cleaning up your house and getting rid of anything you don’t need can be good for keeping your house in order but also reducing clutter on your mind.

Pamper yourself

Every once in a while find a way to pamper yourself. Although getting a massage or a pedicure can be a good way to relax, you don’t necessarily have to spend a lot of money or time on pampering yourself. Watch a new movie, get a new book, go on that date you’ve been wanting to go on even if you go as your own date. Do something for yourself when you can.

Develop your plan

Along with keeping a routine, develop a plan for how to deal with stress as it comes. Have mental exercises available and know how you will make sure that you are eating well, doing exercise, and getting sleep. Be ready for stress, because it will come on a regular basis in some form or another.

Prioritize your life (and yourself)

Lastly, be sure that you are prioritizing your life and yourself. You aren’t living someone else’s life, you’re living your own. You are the only person who will be able to truly be in control of your life. You are the only person who can work on minimizing stress, although others might be able to help. Remember, prioritizing yourself isn’t selfish and is necessary for you to be able to help others.

Self-care is an important life skill to learn in order to help take care of yourself. Before you can help others, you need to be able to make sure that you are in good working order. Take some steps to be able to care for yourself.

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Leilani — Bipolarlifetime
Write It Forward

I am a speaker form the National Alliance of Mental Illness and a blogger of my experiences with mental illness. My goal is to fight stigma.