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The first step towards loving and accepting yourself is understanding how you need to care for yourself. There are eight elements you need to consider when planning your self care routine.
As Shawn Achor explained in his book, The Happiness Advantage, success does not lead to happiness – it is actually the opposite. A positive outlook on life leads to increased performance.
I understand you have certain goals you want to reach, and trust me! I’m all for it! But before we can take a step closer to our goals, we need to find a balance between wellness and willpower.
Self care activities with one of these elements in mind may also fulfill another element, whether it be intentional or subconscious. This is due to how some activities may intersect to accomplish certain goals or feelings.
Physical
Every day, your body works hard to get you where you need to be and to do what you want to do. Treat your body with love and regularly show your appreciation.
It’s so easy to get caught up in our thoughts and lost in our minds. Once we bring the focus back to our bodies, we can start to find peace with simply being.
Physical self care will allow you to feel more connected with your body and will bring you closer to understand that you deserve your spot in this world.
Taking care of your body will also fill you with a certain energy that will overall raise your mood. Confidence can also grow as you start to feel a sense of accomplishment after completing activities that are quick but have a significant effect.
Self Care Activities To Appreciate Your Body
Some of these physical self care activities can be going out for a 20-minute jog, drinking enough water, or eating a delicious and nutritious meal.
Nourishing your body with healthy meals will bring this type of energy I referred to. Having a balanced diet will lead to better bodily functions and increased focus.
With the internet today, it is much easier to eat something that is both good for you and tastes great! You can easily find recipes online, or if you get lazy sometimes like me, you can order from SunBasket. They have meal kits and you can create a customized meal plan based on how your lifestyle (vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.).
Remember, you are not just a compilation of your thoughts. Your body is also what makes you who you are, and you need to embrace all of you.
So, take some time today to do one of these self care activities, so you can feel your best physically. Either due to an increase in adrenaline or shifting focus away from cluttered thoughts, physical self care has a domino effect and increases mental wellness.
Emotional
Our emotions are what make us who we are. Our feelings are always valid and we deserve to exist in this world. Take great care of your emotional self, as it will bring you peace.
This self care element is the one most people usually focus on. Don’t allow society to make you believe your feelings are irrational. What you are feeling right now, whether it is anger or sadness, is absolutely fine.
Allow yourself to feel and don’t bottle up your emotions. Once you’ve expressed yourself, you can take back control of your life with a clearer mindset.
You can do various emotional self care activities, such as journaling or venting to a friend.
If you’re having some trouble thinking of what to do, check out my blog post on 15 Days to Refresh and Reset Your Life.
Spiritual
It’s easy to get caught up in life and to focus on societal worries. You need to remember to connect with yourself and nature as this will bring balance in your life.
In his book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, Don Miguel Ruiz explains how we all have a personal dream and a collective dream. Our collective dream is how we perceive the world due to societal influences.
I highly recommend reading this book. The author easily describes methods in how to shift your mindset to create your own heaven on earth.
However, the reason I bring up this book is that the idea of a collective dream is very much true. There are many subconscious things we tend to do or tend to start believing because of how society inputted these thoughts into our mind.
Whether it be through a need to feel accepted or the belief of having to follow a certain path, we tend to take society’s influence in high regard. Just like how we can get lost in our own thoughts, we can have our thoughts be drowned by the collective voice of society.
The Importance of Nature
This is why it is crucial to reconnect with nature and reflect within ourselves to understand the truth to our “personal dream.”
Everything in nature flows together here and now. The wind blows, flowers bloom, and animals act with only the present in mind. Nature doesn’t contemplate what is going to happen years from now and it doesn’t linger in the past.
It focuses on the present, and whenever we connect with nature or connect with ourselves, it brings a type of clarity into our minds. With this type of spiritual self care, we can focus more on what we truly want versus what society makes us believe we want.
So, don’t neglect taking care of your spiritual energy. Some self care activities you can easily do include going out for a daily nature walk or sitting outside while looking out into the sky. Simply take everything in. Enjoy a deep breath of fresh air. Feel the warmth from the sun shining on your skin. Find peace of mind through meditation.
Inspirational
Absorbing positivity from inspiration will help you project positivity in all aspects of your life. Regularly do activities that will increase your motivation levels.
We tend to be interested in a great number of topics, and thus, we can have many dreams! When we feel inspired to pursue one of these goals, we begin to find a greater purpose in life. This feeling then leads to the realization that we are worthy of getting what we desire and we have the strength to do anything.
It’s easy to feel burnt out, and that’s when you need to focus on the other elements of self care. However, once you’ve connected with yourself and your space again, you can keep yourself motivated by doing certain activities.
While inspiration can typically find you when you least expect it, you shouldn’t rely on just waiting for it to come. Sometimes you need to influence yourself by cracking open a great book or admiring the story of someone who was in your shoes previously that made it to where they want to be.
What I do to feel a burst of inspiration is by listening to podcasts or watching motivational speaker videos.
Intellectual
Like our bodies, our mind works hard to help us progress in life. Nurture your mind by engaging in stimulating activities.
This type of self care can intersect with the Inspirational self care element. This is because as we learn, we feel a sense of accomplishment that increases our confidence and makes us excited to learn more.
One main reason this element is significant is how it expands our world. The more we learn about something, the more we have that we can try. A simple example would be learning about the culture of a new country and how this can lead to adding that country to your travel list!
Another way it expands our world and can also intersect with the Social self care element is having meaningful conversations. With an open mind, we can learn about different perspectives and try to understand varying viewpoints. This can help us create a deeper connection with others as we engage in discussions and heart-to-hearts.
Go and work on learning a new language. Try solving a puzzle. Take a course online.
The more we know, the more we learn about ourselves. This can lead us to learn more about what we like and what we don’t. We will also discover what we may be curious about and what we are willing to do.
Social
Whether it be a relationship with yourself or with loved ones, these bonds bring meaning to our lives. Socializing allows us to give and receive love and support.
Whether you’re more introverted or extroverted, you need to consider this self care element.
Extroverts get their energy from socializing, so this type of self care is a no brainer. However, if you’re a little more introverted, you may regain energy when you are free to enjoy some alone time.
Although introverts may enjoy the quietness, it’s still important to feel love by giving and receiving it from the ones we can about.
While extroverts might need to focus a bit more on this element, introverts tend to neglect this. Regardless of if you’re either or somewhere in the middle like me, you need to remember to take a moment to socialize as this will help your mental health.
Being with loved ones, even if for a short time, will help fill your heart and clear your mind. You can engage by doing activities you enjoy or you can catch up on all the events that have happened in your life since the last time you spoke with them.
Thanks to the internet, we are not limited to reaching out to the few others who are around us. We can connect with more loved ones online to continue strengthening our bonds and send out love virtually.
If you want some more ideas on Social self care activities you can do online, check out my Top 5 Online Date Ideas blog post.
Visual
Aesthetics bring a special kind of calmness. Allow yourself to work towards creating or viewing something you find visually appealing. Enjoy the beauty in all.
Pleasing views leads to a feeling of harmony while clutter leads to higher stress levels.
So, go and spend 15 minutes cleaning up your room and open your window to let in some light and fresh air.
Everything we do has a type of aesthetic that catches our attention. Whether it be from how we dress to how we decorate our homes, our personal tastes for design play a huge factor in feeling a sense of serenity.
Financial
While money does not equal happiness, a better understanding of your finances can help you feel in control. Financial freedom can reduce stress levels as well.
Creating a monthly budget and tracking your expenses will help you understand where your money is going. Once you get a better grasp on your finances, you’ll be able to plan how to use your money to your advantage.
You can save up or pay some debt to help your future self. You can also allocate some remaining funds to purchase something meaningful. Referring back to The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor, buying something that creates memories (like eating out with friends or traveling) provides longer-lasting fulfillment than a materialistic purchase.
Earn With Swagbucks!
You can also find ways to drive more income. An easy way I bring in some more money outside of my regular day job is using Swagbucks.
When I graduated from college and was jobless for a few months, I joined Swagbucks to earn some funds doing surveys. After a while, I grew tired of doing surveys and just overall stopped. I was too lazy to uninstall the Swagbucks plugin from my browser, but this ended up benefiting me greatly.
Whenever I’d go online shopping, the plugin (SwagButton) would pop out and either give coupon codes and provide a button to click to receive cashback. Reviewing my yearly earnings from this, I was surprised to see how much I saved and earned from cashback rewards!
If you want no hassle and are okay with having the SwagButton in the background (or even as your main search bar), I highly recommend getting this. You are basically making free money by just going about your day regularly online.
Create an account HERE and after earning your first 300 Swagbucks, you’ll get an additional 300 SB bonus!
The Elements of Self Care
As a quick recap, the eight elements of self care you need to be aware of are:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Spiritual
- Inspirational
- Intellectual
- Social
- Visual
- Financial
Keep all of these elements in mind when you create a self care routine.
Self Care Habit Tracker
If you need something to assist you with this, I’ve created a self care habit tracker for you to use! This habit tracker is split up according to the elements above.
For each element, I’ve pre-filled the first habit tracker sheet with two activities that I believe are quick and easy to try daily.
However, if you rather do your own self care activities, I left the last habit tracker’s activity section blank and free for you to fill out!
If you would like access to this free resource, click on the banner below!
What element have you been neglecting and how do you plan on incorporating it into consideration for your self care routine?
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