love & care,  Selfcare,  selflove

Self Care: The Samurai Way

January 29, 2022

We all know who the samurai are and how they take care of their physical and mental health because they have to fight for their country. We are all warriors today, even if we are not fighting for our country, but for ourselves and our personal development. Then how could you ignore the act of self-care? And why do you think that self-care is an act of selfishness? Self-care is as essential as water, air, and food. Whereas these things make us physically healthy, self-care makes us both mentally and physically healthy. This is the harsh truth of today’s world: we don’t have the time, or we don’t make any effort to have time for ourselves. But the question is why you did, or I ignore our mental health? So let’s try to find out what self-care is. How many types of self-care are there? What steps do you need to take for self-care?

1. What Is Self Care? As per the Oxford Dictionary, self-care means, “The practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health.” In contrast, the World Health Organization defines self-care as “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the assistance of a healthcare provider.” However, the true definition of self-care is our deliberate act to improve our physical and mental health by engaging in any activity that detoxifies or de-stresses us. When you take the self-care steps, you feel happy and light, but most people ignore them, and it costs them heavily.

2. types of self-care: self-care does not mean the way to find time for yourself, but it’s the art or way of doing different things that provide you with physical and mental peace. There are different types of self care.

a) Physical Self-Care: Because there is a link between the mind and the body, if you are suffering from anxiety, stress, or pressure, it will reflect on your body. Most of the time, we are not able to reduce that, but to live effectively, we have to take care of our body. Physical self-care means what you eat and drink, how much you sleep, how much you take part in physical activities and, more importantly, how much you take care of your physical needs. You should ask yourself if you are getting sufficient sleep. Are you eating healthy food and, moreover, are you exercising?

b) Social Self-Care: As a social animal, we need to be socialized, not for the sake of others, but for the sake of our own well-being. In this busy life, we find it hard to make time for friends and relationships. You may have a lot of friends or followers on social media, but in reality you are all alone because you don’t have time to meet or share your feelings. Close connections are important to your well-being. This is not about the amount of time you spend with each other, but how much quality time you have with them. Everyone has different social needs, and the only thing is that you need to figure out your way to socialize and take care of yourself. For some socializing means taking part in book clubs, cooking clubs and kitty parties or gaming clubs. It solely depends on the individual. Try to consider whether you are having enough face-to-face time with your friends or what steps you are taking to nourish your relationships with your friends and family.

c) Mental Self-Care: We often overlook our mental health, particularly in India. But mental health is also an important part of our lives, just like love. The way you think and the things that you’re filling your mind with greatly influence your psychological well-being. Mental health care includes doing things that keep your mind sharp and healthy in the long run. Mental self-care also involves doing things that help you stay mentally healthy. You should ask yourself if you are making enough time for the activities that are good for your mental health. More importantly, you are proactively doing things that help you stay healthy.

d) Spiritual Self-Care: You may be an atheist or a believer, but research shows that for a healthier lifestyle, you should incorporate some religion or spirituality. You should not keep your spirit hungry for a long time. Maybe you don’t believe in religion, but you can do things that help you connect and understand the universe and yourself. Ask yourself about your life and experience, or are you engaging in activities that help you find fulfillment?

e) Emotional Self-Care- Our emotions are like a sea full of ups and downs, and if we don’t express them properly, then one day we explode like a volcano and die. Today’s world problems: we don’t know how to express our emotions, and now a day’s stress, anger, anxiety, and sadness graph is increasing like the level of the sea. Emotional self-care includes activities that help you understand and express your feelings regularly and safely. Whether you talk to a partner or close friend about how you feel, or you set aside time for leisure activities that help you process your emotions, it’s important to incorporate emotional self-care into your life. You should consider whether you have a healthy way of processing your emotions and, more importantly, whether you incorporate activities into your daily life that help you feel recharged while discharging all of your emotional burdens.

3. Why Is Self-Care Important? We needed an effective self-care routine because it has numerous health benefits, including lowering anxiety and depression, lowering stress and improving resilience, increasing happiness, lowering energy and burnout, and, most importantly, strengthening our interpersonal relationships. Self-care has different health and wellness benefits, including longer life. It needed to develop a self-care plan. The plan that is created by you and for you, because what suites me may not necessarily benefit you. Create your own plan which acts as a bridge to reduce burnout, anxiety, and sadness etc. You should plan your small steps and challenges to lead a healthy and stress-free life.

4. Why Do We Often Fail at Self-Care? Practicing self-care is not an easy task. It is as hard as climbing a mountain. It is true that technology makes our lives easier, but it is also true that our lives are busy as hell and we always have a lot on our plates. In this situation, self-care becomes an expensive dessert that we want to eat but are not able to have for one or other reason. When we get the time to take care of ourselves, we sometimes feel guilty.

5. How Do You Engage in Self-Care? In the 21st century, there are many things available that you can use to engage in self-care. You can read self-care books, join self-care groups, or do anything that helps you. No matter what you choose, the goal is to figure out which self-care strategies work best for you, learn how to use these strategies, and implement them in your regular routine so you can boost your well-being not only today but forever.

6. What are the steps to self-care? There are various steps for self-care, like:

a) Incorporate sleep into your self-care regimen: Sleep is essential for living a healthy life because a lack of sleep is harmful to your health. It has a huge effect on how you feel, both emotionally and physically. But stress affects your sleeping pattern very badly. It’s necessary to make good sleep part of your daily routine. Try to look after your night routine and also try to understand what to eat or not to eat before bed to have a good sleep routine. To ensure a restful night’s sleep, avoid using electronic devices one hour before bedtime, as well as caffeine and sugary foods.

b) Include daily exercise in your self-care routine, such as jumba, salsa, yoga, tennis, cardio, or running. Make exercise part of your daily routine. It will help you boost your immunity and mood and reduce anxiety and stress.

c) Eat well for self-care: The food we eat has an impact on both our body and mind. When we eat healthy food, we not only feel happy and light but also keep our minds active and alert. Amazing self-care foods include fish, leafy vegetables, nuts, berries, etc.

d) Read a book for self-care: In today’s fast-paced world, we find everything online, but even today, there are some good books that are not available online, so to get that knowledge we can read books. Reading books not only reduces our screening time but also helps us reduce our stress. Moreover, reading books can take us to any part of the world as we use our imagination, which is good for our brain and health.

e) Say “no” to others and “yes” to your own self-care. Saying “no” is difficult for most of us and it has negative consequences for our bodies and minds. If you are overworked and stressed out, saying “yes” to a close one will only make matters worse. This over-stress is not only harmful to you but also to others, so you should try to learn to say no, because this is not an act of selfishness but an act of protecting yourself and others.

f) Incorporate time to connect with nature into your daily routine. Nature is always peaceful and it has the power to calm us down by reducing our stress. To live a healthy and happy life, one should try to connect with nature and make it part of their self-care routine. Take a self-care trip to nature. It will help you a lot.

7 Men Can Practice Self-Care: Self-care is for everyone, so why exclude men? They are also an important part of society, but they neglect self-care. Men also like to be pampered and feel healthy, but they don’t know how to ask for it or how to take care of themselves. We always pay attention to women’s self-care, but not to men’s self-care. Even if some men want to go for self-care, they feel shy because they think it’s too feminine. But that’s not true. Self-care is like water, as we all need water to live. Similarly, self-care is needed all the time. It’s useless to differentiate between men’s and women’s self-care. If you feel burned out, stressed, lost and not getting enough sleep, now is the time to start taking care of yourself because self-care helps you to reduce stress and boost your energy to live a happy, long and healthy life.

8 Women should practice self-care: Self-care is always at the bottom of women’s to-do lists. They forget that if they are happy, they can only be able to make their surroundings happy. Happiness is like a magnet that attracts happiness and leads to a happy life. When women don’t make self-care a priority, they often feel like victims of something outside themselves, in a position of restrictions and limitations. This prevents women from having rich and fulfilling lives. Try to be your own best friend and treat yourself in the same way, because the way you are treating yourself is not the way you treat your best friend. You should be kind toward yourself and love and honour your health and well-being. Spend quality time with yourself. It will give you time to rest and refresh. Create supportive surroundings by clearing the clutter in your home or office. Clear clutter in relationships too, like one-sided relationships. Find a partner who also wants to redesign their life for the better. The support will be empowering for both of you and be a model for others around you. It will also help you balance the multiple roles you play as a woman.

Self-care is not rocket science; we all have it. During a pandemic, we understand the importance of self-care even more. We are not able to meet our friends and notable to share our thoughts. We feel like we have been struck in jail. Self-care is the medicine that will save us at this time.  Self-care is an essential part of our lives. It depends on you which type of self-care technique you use. It is possible that a bubble bath, gardening, messaging, watching birds, etc., is your way to pamper yourself. Always choose the method that helps you to have a healthy and happy life. But never forget to self-care because it’s not selfishness but helps to create a balanced life. Posted & Written by hk

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