Creating a self-care plan is not the same for everyone. There is no one size fits all, not even one size fits most for that matter. It requires self-awareness and commitment. Identifying your unique needs and building a routine that fits your current lifestyle makes the most sense.
Hopefully, this blog post will help to guide you through the process of creating a comprehensive self-care plan.
Understanding Self-Care
What exactly is self-care? We all seem to think we know what it is in its entirety, but do we really?
Self-Care can have many meanings really, but in a nutshell, it is a form of maintaining your health and happiness. No doctor required.
Is self-care really that important?
Self-Care can really help an individual manage the everyday stresses life loves to gift us with. It can also improve our mental and physical health, social, financial, emotional and professional well-being also.
You must identify your self-care needs
Do you know what triggers you to be emotional, stressed or unhappy in any way? Take some time and really think about it. Be honest with yourself and go deep with this. This is the first step in curating your self-care plan of attack to combat those triggers.
If you don’t know where to start, begin by dissecting your life into multiple areas. Social, Professional, Self-improvement, Physical, etc. Assess how you are performing in these areas. Are you happy with yourself in each area or do you see a need for improvement.
An effective self-care plan
A self-care plan must cover different areas as mentioned previously. How in depth this part goes depends on you. You can break it down a far as you’d like. Here is an example:
Physical self-care:
Nutrition
Workouts
Sleep
Grooming/Skin, Hair, etc.
Mental self-care:
Mindfulness
Meditation
Relaxation
Alone time
Emotional self-care:
Journaling
Creating boundaries
Mindfulness can also be used here
Social self-care
Relationships
Activities
Hobbies
You get the idea right?
So now that you have the foundation down and realize what areas you need to focus on, a routine must be put in place.
Building a self-care routine
Creating Daily Rituals
By creating a daily ritual consisting of the actions you will begin implementing in order to create lasting changes in your life that will contribute to your overall well-being.
You can start by adding time stamps to your new schedule and work hard at sticking to the schedule that you created.
Incorporate daily, weekly or monthly activities that add to your self-care goals. Whatever makes you happy and energizes you to the point that you feel your happiest.
Over time, your self-care needs may change, so just be mindful of that. Also, you may start to feel a little guilty when you start prioritizing your self-care. Please grant yourself permission to put you first. This is the only way that you will be able to thrive and show as your best self.
No matter how busy life gets, prioritize your self-care. No more putting yourself last or neglecting yourself all together. As women, we must relearn how to nourish our mind, body and soul.
I hope this post has helped you in some way to get back to you and love on yourself for a change.
To your self-care,
Tysheena