If you have ever flown on a commercial airline, you know that before the flight begins, the flight attendants give a safety presentation in which they instruct travelers how to put on an oxygen mask should that ever become necessary. One thing they always say goes something like this: “Place the mask on yourself and then assist others around you who might need help”. They say this because if you don’t help yourself, you can’t really help anyone. This is a short article on how to care for yourself or self care.
Self care is an important component of living an exceptional life. Incorporating self care into your life will benefit you no matter your situation. So what is self care? Most simply it is taking care of you.
Self care can take many forms. Here are a few:
Cognitive: If you tend to be very critical with yourself, self-care could be choosing to stop that negative voice and replace it with kinder, more reality based statements. For example – I missed a turn going to work. Instead of berating myself as stupid, I may choose to think something like “Everyone makes a mistake now and then. I’m not defined by my mistakes.”
Physical: Knowing that your body is an amazing machine, physical self care may be giving yourself permission to take 30 minutes for a walk, choosing to turn the temperature in your apartment up a couple of degrees when you are cold, taking a long bubble bath, doing yoga, etc. It can also be feeding your body food that is healthy because you care about yourself.
Emotional: Self care can start with recognizing when you feel happy, sad, fear, uncertainty, anger, strength, or weakness. Give yourself permission to have these feelings without judging yourself in a negative way. Accept the feeling and then taking steps to address those situations that affect your feeling state. Starting therapy can be great self-care!
Here are just a few additional ideas for self-care:
– Talk to a friend
– Stretch your muscles
– Go hiking
– Challenge yourself to learn something new
– Take a nap
– Cook your favorite meal
– Do a puzzle
– Dance around your home
– Say no
– Draw a picture
– Write a letter to a family member
– Practice gratitude
– Journal
– Say yes
– Write out affirmations
– Practice gentleness with yourself
– Forgive
– Be in the moment, notice what you feel, smell, hear
Additional resources for self care:
Psychcentral gives these three self care strategies .
The University of Kentucky provides these tips for self-care.
A self-care assessment
from East Carolina University.
Our therapists
can help you incorporate self-care into your life. We provide counseling, therapy, and psychiatry in Lexington KY
, Richmond KY
, and Frankfort KY. Please let us help!
Live Exceptionally!
Rhonda J. Souder, Ed.S., LPCC, LMHC
