Regardless of your identity, past actions, or current phase of your life, there is one essential practice that you should immediately integrate into your routine: self-care. Many people do not fully understand what self-care is or give it the importance it deserves.
For this reason, we are going to dedicate this article to telling you everything you need to know about what is self-care and its importance.
Productivity or self-care?
In discussions about productivity, it is common for people to believe that the path to success lies in relentless increases in effort: more tasks, more projects, more clients and more hours dedicated to work. However, the challenge arises when this mindset traps us, making it extremely difficult to escape without allocating time for personal reflection and rejuvenation.
However, by prioritizing the establishment of a routine dedicated to self-care, we not only mitigate feelings of exhaustion, stress, and fatigue, but we also paradoxically improve our overall productivity.
What does self-care entail?
Self-care involves checking in with yourself about your personal needs and providing truthful responses. This can manifest itself in simple actions like leaving early after a demanding workday, or it can require the more challenging task of examining established habits and their potential long-term consequences.
Taking care of yourself involves recognizing and improving the choices you make regarding your physical, emotional, mental, financial, and spiritual needs. This process begins with recognizing your responsibility for your personal well-being, as well as the actions that can be taken to achieve and maintain health.
We have now established a definition: Self-care encompasses actions taken to promote one's mental, physical, and emotional well-being. From this perspective, self-care can take many forms. For me, a massage is one of those forms. However, it can also encompass activities like taking a walk, reaching out to a friend for a chat after a tough day at work, or choosing to stay home, curl up under the covers, read a little, and rest. It's essential to recognize that self-care is subjective: just as each individual possesses different qualities, the concept of self-care varies from person to person.
What does not constitute self-care?
Self-care is not an act of selfishness. It is not about managing the perceptions that others or society have of us, nor does it involve following restrictive diets or contorting ourselves in complex yoga poses. Rather, it focuses on pursuing what brings us satisfaction and engaging in those healthy or beneficial activities that are essential to each individual.
Self-care involves being in tune with your own needs, responding authentically, and taking action that is beneficial in the moment when you ask yourself, “How can I take care of my well-being?”
Practicing self-care is a matter of personal choice. Ultimately, the responsibility for your self-care lies solely with you. No one else can perform this function on your behalf. Relying on others to facilitate your self-care is an unhealthy approach. Self-care fundamentally involves taking charge of your well-being, managing your health, emotions, thoughts, and personal efforts.
This doesn't mean you should exclude others. Rather, you can find inspiration or influence in the people around you, including the people you follow on Instagram, magazines, your dietician, and your therapist, among others. However, it is solely your responsibility to take the next step and start prioritizing your own well-being.
Benefits of self-care
Let's see what the advantages of personal self-care are:
- Productivity improvement: Through the practice of self-care, one acquires the ability to reject commitments that demand excessive time, thus allowing the allocation of time towards more meaningful activities.
- Improve self-esteem: Taking time for self-care, during which we take care of ourselves and attend to our own needs, sends a constructive message to our subconscious.
- Gain greater self-awareness: Taking care of ourselves involves reflecting on our real interests and needs, discovering our true passions and sources of inspiration, thus facilitating a greater understanding of ourselves.
- Possess a greater capacity to contribute: While prioritizing one's own well-being may initially seem like an act of selfishness, it ultimately provides us with the resources to extend compassion to others.
Personal care categories
A common justification we give for not taking care of ourselves is the claim that we lack time. Fortunately, there are numerous activities that we can do for our well-being, none of which are too complicated or time-consuming. When faced with challenges or the need for thorough planning, the key is to identify an activity that aligns with our interests and resonates with our values.
Emotional Self-Care: A crucial aspect of maintaining our emotional well-being is making sure we are fully in tune with our feelings. It is important to recognize that emotions should not be categorized as “good” or “bad.” The responsibility lies not with the emotions we experience, but solely with our actions in response to those emotions.
Physical self-care: The concept of physical self-care revolves around maintaining our bodies, emphasizing the importance of health. Engaging in physical activity is essential to our overall well-being as it helps relieve stress and provides an outlet for pent-up energy. Various activities can be done to encourage this aspect of self-care:
Intellectual self-care: Participating in intellectual self-care involves cultivating our cognitive abilities, fostering critical thinking and creativity through activities such as:
- Read a book or participate in solving a puzzle, such as a crossword puzzle.
- Participate in creative activities such as writing, drawing, or playing a musical instrument.
- Modify your daily routine by choosing an alternative route to work, visiting a new restaurant or store, or completing tasks in a different sequence.
- Start a practical activity, such as knitting, sewing, or crafting.
- Gain new skills by exploring a computer program or improving your photography skills.
- Participate in an educational podcast that explores a topic that you find new and intriguing.
Personal spiritual care: The practice of spiritual self-care involves establishing a connection with your core values and identifying what is truly important to you. It relates to your inner self and encompasses:
- Engage in a daily meditation or mindfulness practice.
- Participate in a service, regardless of whether it is religious or humanist.
- Interact with the natural environment and contemplate the surrounding beauty, as well as keep a gratitude journal.
- Articulate affirmations that reinforce your identity and sense of purpose.
- Embark on a journey solely to capture images of elements that evoke inspiration.
Personal social care: Connecting with others is essential to our happiness; this interaction allows us to recognize that we are not isolated and that our social environment plays an important role in our overall well-being.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about what self-care is and its importance.