The Importance of Self Care For Your Mental Health

When it comes to prioritising our mental health, it might be difficult to understand what that means specifically for you but there are many things that you can do that work for everyone and making room for those self-care days needs its place on the list of ways to improve your mental health.

But what exactly is self-care? What does that include and what does that mean for me? Many things can fall under the category of self-care so we are going to delve into both what and how these little routines and differences in lifestyle can completely transform your mental health for the better.

Self care

Table of Contents

What Is Self Care?

While the popular term self care has been all over social media in the past decade, it’s fascinating that there is not a definitive answer for self care. It is essentially another way of saying you are doing certain things that protect yourself and improve your mood or outlook on life.

According to the NHS, safe care is something that we consciously engage in with the hope that it will improve our physical and mental well-being.

This explains why, after being in a rut, you might dedicate a whole day to self care. Typically, this might include having a bath, washing your hair, painting your nails, getting your hair done, wearing a face mask and other tasks that make you feel like you’ve completed life. They are all conscious choices that you make knowing they’re going to make you feel better after them.

Engaging in acts of self-care or having a weekly self-care routine should, on the whole, make you feel better mentally and physically because it leaves you with a sense of achievement. It can be hard for people to treat themselves with so much grace so when they have completely finished their self care routine, it’s like a big relief.

Why Is Self Care Important?

Self care is an important part of living and can set the reset button for a lot of people. It’s also an essential part of life and it’s interesting that a lot of us call self care something that might be a part of our routine if we weren’t always so busy with the hustle and bustle of the modern-day world.

So taking those days to fully prioritise yourself and get stuff done that makes you feel good is so important. We give so much of ourselves to everyone so it’s only good for your mental and physical wellbeing to give some of that effort back to yourself. and that’s what we call a self-care day. The beauty of it is that an individual can do whatever they please.

These little things we do to make ourselves feel good don’t have to take much of our time or cost the world; they can be as little as making yourself a meal from scratch or having a longer-than-normal bath. It’s all the action of commitment to putting yourself first because you know you are going to feel good about yourself afterwards.

Here are a few reasons why self care is important for your health:

Reduces Stress and Anxiety

While it can be a struggle to get yourself to do these self care activities, once you do, it’s like a huge weight lifted off your shoulders. You can then allow yourself to actually rest without guilt but this also reduces stress hormones circling around your body, promoting a real sense of calmness for the day ahead.

Improve Overall Mood

It’s a good feeling to put yourself first for once and getting some quality time for yourself is much-needed time to reset your batteries and join the world again.

Enhances Your Self Esteem

From a personal perspective, a self care routine for me looks like washing my hair, dying my eyebrows, painting my nails and my full skincare routine. Once this is all done, I not only feel like a brand new woman, but my self esteem is so much higher because I’ve not only been kind to myself, but I feel good about myself inside and out.

Greater Resilience

What I mean by this is that taking care of yourself gives you the motivation and confidence to handle other challenges that life may throw at you. For example, knowledge is power and just knowing that taking care of yourself is a powerful tool to get you back on the horse could completely transform your outlook on life, your relationships with others and most importantly, yourself.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, the person that we know best is ourselves and we have only ourselves. While in some cases it might be hard to do these actions of self-care you must persevere, the reward is much greater than you could ever imagine.

Whether your self care looks like booking a solo holiday to a hut in the middle of nowhere or buying and trying out your favourite gym leggings you’ve been eyeing up from Bo+Tee, there are so many things that you can do that will be outstanding for your mental and physical well being.

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Maive G

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