What is self-care

A wide-accepted definition of self-care is things we do to get a sense of positive feeling emotionally, physically, and mentally. But a deeper knowledge of self-care can open door to other perspectives.

Defining what is self and understanding the self leads a man’s perspective of life into higher quality. There is always a very grave misunderstanding on defining what self-care is. There is an emerging trend of self-care routines by the self-care industry, but what should be understood is self-care is subjective. Proper self-care comes with one’s understanding of self and with self-acceptance, but most crucially cultivating empathy within ourselves and to others. Normal laymen’s mind gets involved in loads of pleasurable activities, it cannot be compared with self-care. Pleasure is a temporary experience and self-care is a road to permanent healing. To have proper communication with people first you must communicate with yourself, and to take care of people around you, you must take care of yourself in the first place.

Self-care is mostly considered is as a having pleasurable moment, that’s why it never works completely for people with anxiety, after the moment passes over then after some time the anxiety or any other trouble gets followed up. So it must be understood that proper self-care, starts from a proper self-understanding. Example: If you have a migraine, not using your phone too much, restricting under dim lights, avoiding phone while before and after sleep understanding how it will affect you, these are small steps and efforts towards self-care, and make sure that you’re empathetic towards the process.

Having a healthy diet, exercise, positive friendship, and journaling is always a part of self-care and is very much needed. But these aspects must not be used as a tool to get deviated from understanding one’s true self.

The more one has an understanding of his self, the more he connects with people in a deeper way and understands them. But the more one gets attached to his self he tends to develop ego. Ego triggers rigidity in a person’s life, it won’t help to construct a flexible mind to person.

So an individual needs to understand the actual self of himself without getting confined to his ego.

One’s you understand your actual self, the next step is to be with it and find what soaks it and brings peacefulness and happiness to yourself. The first step to self-care starts with self-acceptance.

Why is self care important

Our thoughts are our life. To be more precise the mind is our real home. We live inside our minds, and every other thing is just a projection of it. Our thoughts are our seed. The importance of self-care is more realized when we experience more crystal clear thoughts and feelings. More often people see great productivity in what they do. The mind tends to cultivate more awareness. The more valid point on why self-care is important is, it reduces our anxious behavior, on regulating our thought process, offers us a clearer decision and also to view and compare the consequences and the impact of our decisions. One needs to be more empathetic to oneself and yes through this process empathy is also cultivated.

Self-care helps to build resilience towards stress in our lives, this helps us to manage ourselves in many situations. There is a very well-driven misconception to denoting self-care as a luxury activity no, it’s a priority and there is no luxurious element involved in it. Everyone could self-care despite their economical graph.

How to practice self-care

Practicing self-care means cultivating a trait in your personality, it’s a slow process but a very important one. Consistency and trusting the process matters in the journey.

The first, step is to find things that are affecting you and triggering emotional turbulence in you, and setting boundaries so it does not affect you continuously. (Note: Things will still affect you but the magnitude of our emotions will start depleting, so you will learn to manage it). Meditation, mindfulness, or else even visiting a therapist for a normal counseling session would help you to find the triggering element.

Second, add on to your diet. Food makes us feel better and better and good food makes us feel rejuvenated. Drink water as much as possible. Overthinking heats up your mind cooling it up is a necessary task.

Third, Exercise is compulsory. It helps us to connect more with our true self, exercise isolates us from our internal problems. It can be any form of exercise routine it depends on the person’s personal preference.

Fourth, gratitude journaling develops UN recalled empathy in us. To take time and mention gratitude for all the things we have done and happened to us. It’s a more empathetic approach.

Fifth, get enough amount of sleep. Sleep deprivation affects our minds and body more than we expect. We over drain our energy from which we may feel tired and exhausted and added with our emotional problems, it all may take a whole another level of toll.

The last and final one, make self-care a priority. Understand more about the significance of self-care and its impact on you.

Above mentioned are normal routines which anyone can instill in them and to the note self-care practice change when you have serious problems like clinical depression, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic syndrome, and more such mental health issues. When faced with such issues visiting a certified mental health therapist is the key importance to get rid of it.

So before getting into self care, be sure that your not suffering from any serious mental health issue.