Why is self-care so important?
Self-care is a general term that describes everything you do deliberately for your mental, physical, and emotional well-being. This sounds simple, but for a variety of reasons, many people don’t pay enough attention to self-care. You need to be conscious of your overall well-being before you can reach a level where you’re experiencing true self-care. It all starts from small daily changes to our routines and thought processes. Things like not staying up all hours of the night binge-watching shows when you know it will negatively affect your sleep. Or constantly scrolling through social media for hours on end, instead of focusing on yourself, and the things in life that nurture your entire being. Though it’s often overlooked, self-care truly enhances all areas of our lives.
Self-Care Improves Focus
When you are less stressed you’re, better able to focus. When you’re unable to focus, your thoughts and energy are spread out inconsistently throughout the day, so you end up being busy, but not really productive. An optimal self-care routine would help you have mental clarity, which would allow you to concentrate, and have more clarity and focus when going about your day. With an emphasis on mindfulness, self-care is key to strengthening your level of focus.
It gives you a break from stress and boosts your immune system
Taking a timely break from our busy daily routines is an absolute must when it comes to maximizing your self-care. Whatever activity puts your mind at ease and allows you to take a mental and emotional vacation, needs to be made a priority. Things like massages, meditation, exercise, and rest are at the core of a healthy self-care routine, and they allow your body’s nervous system to go into a ‘ rest and restore mode. When your body is rested and in a state of minimal stress, it will protect you from catching a cold, the flu, or experiencing a variety of other immune system issues.
Improved Relationships
Many people rely on their partners for emotional support. This is normal and a healthy part of long-term relationships. The problem is when one partner overly relies on the other partner, to the point where it’s causing emotional strain and tension. Sometimes one partner heavily relies on the other because they’re lacking fulfillment or confidence in certain areas of their life. To relieve the stress and emotional burden that overreliance can have on a relationship, each partner should invest in self-care. When both partners engage in emotional self-care, they keep in tune with and fulfill their own needs. When partners tap into their own sense of self-worth, fulfillment, and happiness independent of their relationship, they can then come together and enjoy one another in a healthy, fulfilling manner without additional stressors. As an added bonus, being in tune with your own feelings often leads to improved communication, which allows for an even stronger bond to be built during the relationship.
These are just some of the benefits of self-care. Keep in mind, that your self-care is yours and yours alone. You get to decide what ideal self-care is for you, which may be different than what it looks like for someone else. The beauty in life is that we are all unique and therefore we all have a different view of what self-care is. What’s important is that we take the time to learn ourselves, and incorporate self-care into our daily lives to achieve mental, physical, and spiritual balance.