Do people ask you how you are? Most people would say yes to this, but are you asked how you do it? I could attest that my girlfriends ask me this – and there are a couple of things I tell them depending on self-care activity I was doing then.
What is Self-Care?
With that being said, let us define what self-care is.
Self-care is any activity that we do on purpose to take care of our physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental health. This sounds simple in theory, but honestly, this is something easily overlooked if you do not intentionally take time to do it.
If you are kind to yourself, self-care improves your mood and reduces your anxiety. Good self-care could then mean a better relationship with yourself and with others.
Self-care, by all means, is not being selfish. It is not only about considering our needs but knowing that being able to take care of ourselves means that we will be able to take care of others as well. I’m pretty sure you have already heard a little quote that says, ‘you must love yourself before you love another.’
By this time, you’d know that with a self-care checklist, you have to start with the basics. Try and find the routine or system that could work for you and then work around it. And since self-care is something you do on purpose, you have to plan it.
Actively choose the activity you want and if you could ask someone to do it with you, all the better – for you to stick to it and commit. Since you want to commit, make every self-care activity as intentional as it can be. Keep in mind why you are doing it and what you want the outcome to be and let it be your driving force to be able to do it.
Daily Self-Care Checklist
Of course, we need a list, although self-care is different for different people, here’s the basic self-care checklist you can try just to start.
1. Eat healthier and exercise.
2. Meditate or do yoga.
3. Get enough sleep.
4. Follow through on that check-up.
5. Relax.
6. Spend time with the people you love.
7. Get a pet.
8. Go to the movies.
9. Try cooking.
10. Do not forget to laugh.
These are all self-explanatory activities, and you can go ahead and continue adding more on this list or remove something that does work for you. With whatever list that you have, set it up for a week or two and check on yourself before doing all those self-care activities and then after a few days of doing them.
If you can keep a journal of this journey that you will embark on, all the better. Recording how you feel is an intentional self-care activity that you can practice. It helps with the acknowledgment of your emotions and disposition.
Yes, indeed, you could easily feel guilty when you do some of these self-care activities because it would feel somewhat self-directed, something that you are not used to. But, remember that self-care is essential to everyone’s lives. We know this, yet we disregard it because we have tons to finish on our ‘to-do list.’
We tend to prioritize others more than ourselves, and this is true for a lot of women out there. And because we have so much on our plate, we imagine, how on earth am I going to insert my self-care?
My advice is, just do it. There is no other way.
At the end of the day, other activities on your to-do list will not be accomplished since you are already fed up with the entire days’ activity and guess who would suffer the consequences of you being all moody and irritable? The same people whom you were prioritizing and created the to-do list around.
