When you think of self-care, your mind typically jumps to things such as taking a bubble bath and making time for yourself. However, did you know there’s actually a lot of different types of self-care you can focus on? This article is day one of a self care strategies series I’ll be posting every day so stay posted for more articles to help you along your selfcare journey! Check out more of my self care posts here!
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If you really want to achieve the benefits of self-care, you’re going to need to ensure you’re utilizing the different types. The question is, what are the different types of self-care and what do they consist of? It’s important to understand the different kinds of self-care because honestly, there are days where I just need a ton of emotional care but maybe not as much physical. It really depends. By familiarizing yourself with the different kinds of self-care you can better recognize what it is your body needs and cater your self-care to those needs! This is day one in a series of self-care posts to help you understand and achieve your goals for self-care! This can really help you learn how to take care of yourself. In times of stress and uncertainty, you can always resort to self care for a little comfort and grounding.
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Here, you’ll discover 5 types of self-care you’ll want to familiarize yourself with.
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1. Emotional
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Your emotional wellbeing has a huge impact on your happiness and quality of life. Therefore, if you want to improve your wellbeing, you’re going to want to focus on emotional self-care. Now I know you’re thinking, but wait? Isn’t this kind of self-care only for people with depression or anxiety? And my answer would be absolutely not! Everyone has daily stress and high emotion in their lives and it’s important to address that in a healthy way. Addressing theses emotional needs can potentially better prevent more serious mental health problems in the future. This is just one example of the importance of self care!
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This type of self-care enables you to better deal with your emotions. You’ll be able to control the way you feel, rather than letting it control you. You’ll learn to become more aware of your emotions and express them in a healthier way.
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Emotional self-care can include seeing a therapist, listening to music and keeping a journal. Looking for a journal to help you outline your emotional self-care? Download this one below! I use this one and it really helps me stay mindful and organized when it comes to my own self care and mental health. Just sign up for my awesome email list to get this freebie and many more in the future!
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2. Physical
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In order to stay healthy, it’s important to look after the body’s physical needs. That is, making sure you get enough sleep, drinking plenty of water and exercising regularly. However, physical self-care is so much more than just healthy eating and staying active.
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When you’re focusing on physical self-care, it includes ensuring you’re not adopting any unhealthy coping mechanisms such as binge eating or missing sleep to binge watch a series. It means taking time out when you’re sick and going to medical appointments whenever you need to.
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Looking for a good calendar to organize all your physical self-care needs? Check out the one I use here! You can download it for free!
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3. Spiritual
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Spiritual self-care is often associated with religion. However, it’s basically anything which nurtures the spirit.
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This is just as important as your physical and emotional wellbeing. If you want to lead a truly healthy and happy life, you need to make sure your mind, body and spirit are equally taken care of. Personally, I love meditation. It really took me a while to get into it, but it can truly be a wonderful experience for getting your mind centered back to neutral! If I had a hard day at work, the first thing I do when I get home is meditating for 15 minutes. I don’t want to accidentally snap at my family or let that work stress follow me home.
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Examples of spiritual self-care include surrounding yourself with nature, reading a great book, meditating and taking time out for personal reflection.
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4. Social
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Your relationships and social skills can play a large role in your happiness. We all need healthy, strong relationships to be truly happy. It’s also important to remember that the people we surround ourselves with make a big difference to how we feel about ourselves and how we act.
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How is your social circle right now? Think about the type of people you prefer to be around. Consider your romantic relationship, or lack of, and how it can be improved.
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Social self-care includes learning to say no if you need to, as well as making time to spend with family or taking that chance and going on a date. It focuses on strengthening your relationships and doing what you need to do in order to meet your individual social needs. This is a HUGE aspect of my self care. I always want to work on my relationship with my fiancé and we take that self-care time together to strengthen our relationship together and make sure we are always being open and honest with one another. I also like to make sure I’m spending enough time outside of the house. As someone who is very much an introvert, I have to actively make myself get out and be social. I won’t even notice the lack of social contact until, all of a sudden, I’m feeling kind of down, and I realize wow I haven’t seen my friends in three weeks! I should really make plans with them soon. I’ve tried to get on a better schedule of reaching out and seeing people to improve my social self care. If you’re an introvert like me, try scheduling a monthly or bi-weekly hangout with someone! It can help break up your routine a bit and life your spirits!
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5. Practical
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Another type of self-care you’ll want to focus on is practical self-care. This relates to the practical aspects of your life such as your finances, career and organizational skills. This type of self care is immensely important for taking care of yourself. It can help organize your life and create a less stressful tomorrow!
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By focusing on practical self-care, you’ll potentially avoid stressful situations in the future. Taking care of your finances for example, will greatly reduce your stress levels and ensure you’re well-equipped to handle any potential future cash flow challenges.
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Some practical self-care tasks include creating a budget, taking a course to progress in your career and organizing your closet.
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Focus on Your Self Care
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These are just five examples of the different types of self-care. If you’re committed to improving your quality of life and becoming happier, you’ll want to make sure you’re taking care of all of your needs. Want more self-care tips and ideas? Check out the next post in this series here!
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However, with so many things to focus on, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. So, it’s a good idea to start by focusing on one or two self-care tasks until they become a regular habit. Then, you can move on to other tasks to gradually improve your life. I am not perfect when it comes to self-care, but I do try to make purposeful and direct changes to my lifestyle to improve my life and take care of myself.
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Try some of these ideas for yourself and let me know how they work out!
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Take care of yourself so you can take care of somebody else.
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Check out day 2 here!
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