What You’ve Always Needed is Self-Care
21/90 rule. Have you heard of this rule? Did it ever cross your mind why it is called 21/90 and not 21/21? The rule claims that it takes at least 21 days for a person to repeat a hobby until it becomes a habit, and a habit that is repeated for 90 days will become part of your lifestyle. Imagine if that habit is something that would lead you to a better version of yourself, wouldn’t that be great? And it’s even more fantastic if it’s self-care.
Self-care is a habit that everyone should be practicing and many find it challenging because they fear that people might call them “selfish”, when in fact, self-care requires being selfish. In one of Emma Watsons’ interviews with Vogue, she termed the word “self-care” as “self-partnered.” In which self-care is a journey of learning how to be your own best friend and hero. There might be people who take care of us but other times, all we have at the end of the day is ourselves. It is important to remember that we should learn to take care of ourselves so we can take care of our loved ones. Keep in mind that self-care will help you better handle stress, increase efficiency, and influence positive thinking.
To get to know more about self-care, here are the 7 different types and tips that may help you understand and practice taking care of yourself. I personally practice these types of self-care and it works for me, so I wanted to include it here hoping it would work for you as well.
- Physical Self-Care – requires behaviors that enhance your physical well-being, such as healthy diet and exercise. It can be as easy as cooking your own food rather than relying on food delivery to engage in such activities. We have our lazy days sometimes but as much as you can, cook a hearty meal for yourself. Getting enough sleep is also a form of physical care, when you have enough rest, it helps you think clearly.
- Emotional Self-Care -this entails recognizing and nurturing your emotional needs, as well as your conscious inner state and intellect. Writing down your feelings in a journal can help you make yourself feel a little bit better when you’re angry or sad. It could also help you to reflect about yourself. Daily affirmations are also helpful especially when things get tougher for you.
- Spiritual Self-Care – does not have to be linked to religion, though it may be for others. You are nourishing your soul, searching for inner harmony, and looking for reason and meaning in life while you practice spiritual self-care. In my case, I practice doing the holy rosary at night since it is one way for me to pray for the people I love and find peace before sleeping.
- Social Self-Care – Since introverts and extroverts have different levels of comfort in social settings, this form of self-care can look different for them. However, we all need to be linked. I’m a certified introvert so I comfortably do my own stuff alone and would rarely ask for help, so that kind of separates me from spending time with my family and friends. So practicing social self-care for introverts like me can be simple as asking for help, especially when you really need it.
- Psychological Self-Care – these activities that make you feel clear-headed and capable of engaging intellectually with the professional problems you face at work and in your personal life. One of the challenging ways to practice this is by forgiving yourself. It isn’t an easy thing to do, but you should learn to forgive yourself for not knowing the things even before you learned about them.
- Environmental Self-Care – is the act of caring for one’s surroundings. This form of self-care is particularly important right now for COVID patients who will be spending a lot of time at home. One habit that may help you to do this is to avoid attending class on your bed. Staying in bed can make you feel attentive to class and would easily fall asleep.
- Financial Self-Care – Consider your investments in the same way as you would your heart or brain. To remain safe, each of these needs special attention. When it comes to finances, you can begin the self-care process by reviewing your accounts, finding trouble areas, and envisioning your ideal financial situation. One of the best lessons that I’ve learned from a financial webinar is to never spend less than you earn.
It is important to know each of these so you know where to start working on, or track which area of yourself that you can improve. The tips given in this article are just ideas and you don’t necessarily have to create a checklist for taking care of yourself, but if it works for you then go for it. Always remember that self-care is always something that makes you better so go ahead and start having a partnership with yourself, do it for you.
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