Self Care
August 2023
Self care was the topic for our August Ways to Wellbeing get together, and this blog post is a summary of what we discussed.
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Self care is described as 'the practice of taking action to preserve or improve your own health'.
How many of us can honestly say we do this? How often do we push our own self care to the bottom of the list, prioritising others over ourselves?
Read that again- self care is 'the practice of taking action to preserve or improve your own health'. Which word jumps out at you from that sentence? This can be insightful for where you need to direct your focus and attention for your own self care. The word that jumped out for me was action and this tells me I need to do just that, take some action!
What does self care mean to you?
I suggest taking some time to think about this question and note down your ideas. To me, self care means being kind to yourself and giving you what you need, but it's also about finding the careful balance of nurture and discipline. If you go too heavy on the nurture, you probably won't leave the sofa. Too heavy on the discipline and you will never give yourself a break. It's about knowing when to be kind and nurture yourself, and when to give yourself a nudge and a bit of discipline.
Your self care at the moment
It is widely acknowledged there are 6 areas of self care: psychological, emotional, spiritual, personal, professional, and physical.
Take a moment to score your self care in each of these areas with zero being its worst, and 10 being the best. Think about each area and what it means to you.
What could you do to improve your self care in this area? If you're not sure, click on the self care wheel to view some ideas.
What does all of this tell you about your actual levels of self care at the moment? How is this similar/different to how you described your self care a moment ago? What have you learned?
Pick an area that scored low, or perhaps the area with the lowest score. Where do you want your self care to get to in this area? You might want to improve your score and decide on a number you're aiming for, or perhaps just write a description of where you want it to get to.
What can you stop doing, or do less of, to help you get there?
What can you start doing, or do more of, to help you get there?
Choose one action that is easily and readily available to you, that will have a positive impact on your self care and wellbeing starting today, and commit to it from now!