Whether you struggle with mental illness, grief, a high stress job, or another one of life’s many obstacles, self care is essential.
By nature, self care is a very personal activity. This means that what I do in my self care routine may not be what you find most effective or enjoyable in yours. That’s why I’ve spoken to various acquaintances of mine, and consulted Mental Health America and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health to provide you with a variety of self care activities to try.
What I found is that there are around six categories of self care that can be practiced in different ways. I’ve divided my list into these six subsections and have given as many suggestions that I could think of underneath each one. Without further ado, here they are:
Physical Activity: Exercise releases endorphins and improves both your physical and mental wellbeing. There’s plenty of physical activities that you can incorporate into your week that will help with self care.
- Yoga
- At-home workouts
- Going to the gym
- Playing a team sport
- Playing an individual sport
- Going on a walk
- Going on a run
- Bike riding
- Swimming
Healthy Lifestyle: Health goes beyond just exercising. Here are examples of ways to take care of your body and mind.
- Eat healthy foods
- Maintain a regular sleep schedule
- Go to a doctor for regular check ups
- Regulate drug and alcohol consumption
Hygiene: Practicing personal hygiene improves your self image and reduces the risk of illness. Hygiene can be more than your morning showers and brushing your teeth. There’s also special hygienic activities that can be fun and restorative.
- Long baths
- Face masks
- Spa day (done at home or by a professional)
- Doing your nails
- Moisturizing
Social Relationships: Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, maintaining a certain degree of social relationships is essential to your wellbeing. There’s plenty of ways to see your loved ones.
- Go out to a restaurant
- Have a board game night
- Schedule FaceTime dates
- Watch a movie
- Go for a walk together
- Join a support group
Enjoyment: It kind of goes without saying that doing fun things improves your mood, but I’ll say it anyway just in case: doing fun things improves your mood!
- Watch your favourite movie/show
- Play video games
- Read a book
- Go on a hike
- Create art (painting, drawing, writing etc.)
- Go shopping
- Eat your favourite food
- Have a fun night out
Relaxation: When it feels like you have too much going on, it can be hard to remember the importance of relaxation. The following activities can help with that!
- Meditation
- Massage
- Sitting in nature
- Listening to ASMR
- Sitting in a hot tub
As you may have noticed, there is plenty of potential for overlap in many of these activities. They’re also very flexible in terms of how long they take, so you can easily adapt them to your own life.
I truly hope that you are able to practise self care this week and every week. You deserve it!