The practice of self-care, although a necessity in life, is not used enough and many people don\u2019t truly understand what self-care is.\u00a0 Many people attempt to eliminate a lot of things that they find stressful.\u00a0 But what happens when the stressors are unavoidable parts of life?\u00a0 Many people have children, a family, school or work that present unavoidable stressors.\u00a0 \u201cSelf-care is vital for building resilience toward those stressors in life that you can\u2019t eliminate\u201d (Scott, para. 5).<\/p>\n
Until I started my current job I never really thought about self-care or what I can do for myself.\u00a0 Many people don\u2019t even consider self-care, especially those who are busy parents.\u00a0 In the middle of running kids to after school activities, going to parent\/teacher conferences, working, cooking dinner, cleaning house, and just taking care of life, we start to lose ourselves in the craziness of it all.\u00a0 As I type this I am surrounded by the craziness of life and it\u2019s stressors.\u00a0 A final paper to write, a deadline to meet at work, a presentation to do, kids to care for and a house to maintain.\u00a0 And I wonder when I will have time for self-care myself.\u00a0 Luckily I have an amazing job that promotes self-care and therefore, will allow me some time while at work to work on school work.\u00a0 Thus, giving me the time for self-care outside of work (at least hopefully).<\/p>\n
As Elizabeth Scott mentions in her article \u201c5 Self-Care Practice for Every Area of Your Life\u201d, it is important to practice self-care in all areas.\u00a0 These include physical, social, mental, spiritual and emotional self-care.\u00a0 All of these areas of self-care are equally important, especially for people who work high stress jobs or live high stress lives.\u00a0 While you can certainly practice self-care in one area and not another, in order to optimize results it is important to find a balance.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysical self-care includes how you\u2019re fueling your body, how much sleep you\u2019re getting, how much physical activity you are doing, and how well you\u2019re caring for your physical needs\u201d (Scott, para. 9).\u00a0 In order to keep your physical body healthy, in turn keeping your mind healthy, you need to get adequate sleep, maintain a good diet, attend doctors\u2019 appointments and take medication as prescribed and get enough exercise.\u00a0 Methods that help with physical self-care can be as simple as setting a bedtime and sticking to it to ensure that you are getting enough sleep, meal prepping at the beginning of each week to ensure that you are eating healthy foods instead of trying to find something quick and unhealthy to grab and go.<\/p>\n
As Elizabeth Scott points out, \u201cit\u2019s easy to neglect your relationships when life gets busy\u201d (Scott, para. 12).\u00a0 As we grow up, we settle down, have children and our priorities change.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard people joke about how once you have kids you no longer have friends.\u00a0 I, myself, have made joking, witty, sarcastic and passive comments about how my social life has dwindled since becoming a mother.\u00a0 It\u2019s very difficult to maintain friendships when you and your friends are suddenly at different stages in life, such as motherhood, newlywed, attending college, or just living the single life.\u00a0 Your way of life defines your priorities, or maybe your priorities define your way of life.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to lose friendships in the chaos of life but it\u2019s extremely important to make new ones and maintain the ones you can.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you making enough time for activities that mentally stimulate you?\u00a0 Are you doing proactive things to help you stay mentally healthy?\u201d (Scott, para. 21).\u00a0 If not then this could be detrimental to your mental health.\u00a0 How you think, and what you think, greatly impact your mental health and psychological welfare.\u00a0 Exercising your brain by completing puzzles, learning new facts, watching movies, reading books and even working on things like self-compassion and acceptance, are all ways to practice mental self-care and create a better environment for your mind to grow.<\/p>\n
You do not have to be a religious person in order to practice spiritual self-care.\u00a0 Meditation, religious services and praying are all examples of spiritual self-care.\u00a0 Regardless of what you choose to do for spiritual self-care, it should develop a sense of self meaning, self-understanding or a deeper connection with the universe.\u00a0 I, myself, enjoy meditation and self-reflection.\u00a0 By asking myself questions about my life and experiences and answering them honestly I am able to reflect on myself and find meaning in my life.<\/p>\n
A big part of emotional self-care is developing coping skills to deal with various emotions and stresses that may arise in everyday life, or as part of a traumatic experience. \u00a0\u00a0\u201cEmotional self-care may include activities that help you acknowledge and express your feelings on a regular basis\u201d (Scott, para. 22).\u00a0 You may find that talking to a friend, spouse or sibling about your emotions and how you deal with them helps.\u00a0 Some people may be able to have an activity or activities that help them to process emotions.\u00a0 I have had regular contact with people who find that taking a walk helps them to process their emotions.\u00a0 I, myself, need to verbalize my emotions.\u00a0 Depending on the emotions I am experiencing and the reason why I am experiencing these emotions, I may be able to talk to a co-worker or my husband.\u00a0 At a few points in my lifetime I have gone to a counselor because sometimes it helps to have an objective ear to listen, someone who doesn\u2019t have a horse in your race and can help you to process things efficiently without judgment.<\/p>\n
The bottom line with all areas of self-care is do what works for you.\u00a0 No two people\u2019s self-care methods will be identical, and they shouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 No two people are identical so while one thing works for you, it may not work very well for the next person and something that works for me may not work for you.\u00a0 Working in an environment in which the possibility of secondary trauma is very high has made me realize that I need to find what works for me in all areas and develop a balanced plan to take care of myself, mind body and soul.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also realized that just when you think that you have done enough self-care, you probably haven\u2019t and that there really isn\u2019t such a thing as too much when it comes to taking care of yourself.\u00a0 So what are you waiting for?! Go develop your self-care methods!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
References<\/p>\n
Scott, E. (n.d.). 5 Self-Care Practices for Every Area of Your Life<\/em>. Retrieved April 29, 2019, from https:\/\/www.verywellmind.com\/self-care-strategies-overall-stress-reduction-3144729<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The practice of self-care, although a necessity in life, is not used enough and many people don\u2019t truly understand what self-care is.\u00a0 Many people attempt to eliminate a lot of things that they find stressful.\u00a0 But what happens when the stressors are unavoidable parts of life?\u00a0 Many people have children, a family, school or work […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":986,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985\/revisions\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}