The Importance of Self Care in for your Overall Health
What is self care?
You’ve probably heard people throw around the term self care. At first, it can sound complicated. But, we assure you it’s not. Self care is simply the act of taking care of yourself.
In the busy world we live in, too often we neglect taking care of ourselves. This leads to excess stress, depression, fatigue, and anxiety—amongst other consequences.
When it comes to your overall well-being, self care touches on many different parts of your health. Specifically, it’s an essential component to your:
- Physical health
- Emotional health
- Mental health
- Spiritual health
- Social health
Self care is so important to your overall health, because neglecting it has the power to impact many different areas of your life. Developing an adequate plan is key to living a well rounded and healthy life.
Here we break down what happens when you don’t practice self care, how different areas of your health that are impacted, and the importance of developing a plan that’s right for you.
What happens when you don’t practice self care?
When you don’t practice self care, you aren’t prioritizing your overall health. When you neglect it, you’re more likely to experience:
- Anxiety
- Overwhelm
- Depression
- Weight Gain
- Fatigue
- Poor Hygiene
All these factors negatively contribute to your overall health.
By implementing simple steps in your daily routine to make you feel your best, you’ll be able to improve your overall health and wellness.
A Plan for Physical Health
Implementing self care in your physical health is a great way to reduce stress and improve your overall health.
Your physical health is crucial to your well being, and you have to make time for it. Next time you’re developing a plan, be sure to include things like regularly:
- Exercising
- Eating healthy
- Getting adequate sleep
- Practicing meditation and relaxation
- Avoiding misusing alcohol or drugs
Focusing on your physical health is a great way to practice to relieve stress, and will help you become your best self.
A Plan for Emotional Health
Far too often, the importance of emotional health is overlooked. But, it definitely should not be. Emotional health is also a critical component of our overall well being.
If you’re not practicing self care as part of your emotional health, you’re more likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Burnout
When practicing it to improve your emotional health, be sure to:
- Make time for yourself
- Take time to process your feelings
- Express your emotions regularly through journaling or talking to a close friend
When you give yourself space to process your emotions, you’re learning healthy coping skills.
This way, when you’re faced with feelings like anger, anxiety, or sadness—you’re more prepared to cope and work through them.
A Plan for Social Health
Many of us are busy and we have multiple responsibilities. As we get older, we begin taking care of older parents, or even children.
Playing the role of caretaker often makes us overlook the importance of socialization.
However, practicing regular socialization is critical for stress management.
Everyone is different when it comes to how much socialization they need. Introverts may need less, whereas extroverts need more. But no matter which you are, you do need socialization.
Make sure you build time to socialize into your daily routines. This will help you build healthy and thriving relationships with others.
A Plan for Spiritual Health
The world we live in is complex, and we question things everyday. Don’t undermine the importance of having a sense of religion or spirituality in your life.
You don’t necessarily have to be religious to practice this kind of self care. You just have to be willing to develop a deeper sense of understanding and connection with the world around you.
There are multiple ways you could practice spiritual self care. Some examples include:
- Attending a religious service
- Meditating
- Praying
- Journaling
Whatever you choose to do, it’s important you do something to gain a deeper understanding of the complex world around us.
A Plan for Mental Health
Practicing self care in mental health is arguably one of the areas that impacts your overall well-being the most.
It’s important to do things that fuel your mind, help you gain a sense of “flow”, and inspire you. You need to be mentally stimulated if you want to grow your thoughts and ideas.
Some examples include:
- Reading books that show you a new perspective
- Watching movies that give you inspiration
- Learning a new skill that interests you
At the end of the day, filling your mind with activities that mentally stimulate you will be crucial to your psychological well being.
How to develop a self care plan?
Developing a plan for each area of your health is key. A plan will be custom to you and your needs, and won’t be the same as someone else.
Sometimes, focusing on self care may include reaching out to professionals for help. If you need to find a therapist or doctor, checkout Connect2Heal and get connected with the healthcare provider that’s right for you.
It’s also important to get clear on what area of your health needs the most help. This will be different for everyone.
An example of a plan for an elderly individual may be incorporating more social activity into their routine. Whereas, a busy college student may need more help focusing on the physical side of this.
Whatever type of care you need to manage stress will be unique to you. And it’s important you take time to develop a plan that works well for you.
Here are a few reasons why this type of care is so important for your mental and physical health. We hope you’ve learned more about all the different areas of your life that require care, and how you can incorporate it into your routine.
If you’re interested in learning more tips & tricks about self care and your overall health, be sure to checkout Connect2Heal for more expert advice.
