Top 5 simple self care practices to enhance overall wellbeing
Self-care strategies to boost your mental, physical, emotional, social and spiritual health
What is Self-Care?
In our daily lives, we all have a spectrum of needs—emotional, physical, spiritual, social, and mental. Self care defined as the proactive fulfillment of these needs to enhance overall well-being. However, in today's fast-paced world, it is very difficult to find time to fulfill these needs.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), self care is the capability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent diseases, and manage illness and disability. Despite its vital importance, self care is is often misconstrued as a luxury rather than a priority. Simple changes in our daily routines can enhance our ability to engage in self-care practices.
Lets have a look at five different areas of self-care
- Physical self-care
- Social self-care
- Mental self-care
- Emotional self-care
- Spiritual self-care
Physical Self-Care:
Taking care of our physical health is the foundation to our overall wellbeing. Regular exercise, adequate sleep, proper diet, and routine medical checkups are the basic steps of physical self-care. Introducing simple changes in your lives such as opting to walk instead of driving, having salad over fast food, and setting strict bedtime can significantly enhance physical self-care.
Social Self-Care:
Social self-care involves nurturing our relationships, such as spending time with friends and family or participating in group activities. Unfortunately, our busy schedules often prevent us from fostering these important connections, which can negatively impact our social self-care. To practice social self-care, introduce simple changes such as reaching out to a friend or family member to catch up once a week, whether through a phone call or a coffee meetup.
Mental Self-Care:
We often overlook our mental health or find ourselves too busy to even consider taking care of it. However, the mind is a powerful component of our overall well-being; therefore, keeping your mind sharp and healthy is important. Mental self-care includes activities like reading, solving puzzles, and it also involves strategies for managing stress such as mindfulness or meditation. Incorporating these mental self-care activities into your daily routine, you can significantly enhance your overall well-being.
Emotional Self-Care:
Taking care of your emotions, finding healthy ways to express and process them is emotional self care. Techniques for emotional self-care include journaling, therapy, creative expression, and open communication with the ones you trust. Introducing habits such as writing down your thoughts or expressing your emotions through creative means such as art, music, or talking to a friend about your feelings can significantly help you regulate your emotions.
Spiritual Self-Care:
It is about finding a deeper sense of meaning, purpose, or connection with the universe. To enhance your spiritual well-being and foster inner peace, introduce activities according to your preferences such as meditation, spending time in nature, practicing gratitude, or exploring religious services.