What is self-care?
Self-care is any activity or routine that focuses on your health and wellbeing. It isn’t limited to days at the spa or luxurious getaways, but involves the more fundamental steps of caring for your physical, mental, and emotional needs. Anything from getting enough rest to socializing with loved ones or eating well can be considered self-care.
Self-care doesn’t have to look the same for each person. The ways in which you care for yourself may differ from the self-care routines of those around you, depending on your specific needs.
Of course, many of us are prone to neglecting self-care altogether. You might believe that prioritizing your own needs is an act of selfishness, or that you simply don’t have the time in your busy day. You may opt to cut back on sleep in order to maximize your time at work, or skip dinner plans with friends to watch TV.
Many of us fail to notice how damaging neglecting our self-care can be, how it can lead to rising stress levels, emotional exhaustion, and even burnout. It’s only when our anxiety, depression, or stress becomes too much to ignore that we might urgently turn to self-care. If neglecting your well-being ultimately leads to burnout, it can take a heavy toll on all aspects of our life, including your health, relationships, work, and academic pursuits.
Pursuing self-care isn’t always easy, especially if you’re struggling with a chronic condition. Depression can sap your motivation to even get out of bed, for example. Anxiety can keep you up at night, making you tired and irritable. And chronic pain can make it difficult to focus or move. However, a little self-care can also help ease all of these symptoms.
Creating a self-care plan doesn’t have to be a difficult undertaking. But it will, by definition, require you to take some time to consider your own needs and desires. By understanding the different types of self-care, you can identify where you need to make improvements in your life and take steps to improve your overall health and well-being.
Types of self-care that positively impact mental health
Self-care can come in many different forms, including physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual. Most of these types of self-care have overlapping benefits. Physical self-care, such as exercise, can also reduce stress and improve your mood. Spiritual self-care, such as joining a religious group, can also enhance your social well-being.
Here’s a closer look at the different types of self-care and how they relate to mental health.
Physical self-care
Physical self-care involves activities that strengthen or restore well-being to your body. For example, getting enough quality sleep can improve your decision-making, learning, emotional regulation, and focus. Physical activity releases endorphins that elevate your mood and is linked to decreased depression, stress, and anxiety.
Certain dietary choices, such as eating foods that contain omega-3s or probiotics, for example, may improve your mood as well. On the other hand, eating too many sugary treats or ultra-processed foods may have a negative effect on your physical and emotional health.
Emotional self-care
Emotional self-care can include steps to build emotional awareness and learn to better recognize and manage your emotions. Many of us feel disconnected from our emotions, at the mercy of stress, anxiety, or anger. We often act impulsively, doing or saying things that we later regret, or we feel emotionally numb.
But emotional self-care can help you learn to accept all your motions—even the ones that don’t necessarily feel good—and understand they are temporary states.
Emotional self-care practices such as journaling, meditation, or making time for therapy, can also help you reflect on past experiences and heal from trauma.
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Mental and intellectual self-care
Mental self-care is any activity that improves your psychological well-being or keeps you mentally sharp. Think of meditation, stress management techniques, or spending time with a beloved pet. When you don’t take time for these activities, stress and anxiety can build up and put you at risk of burnout.
Mental self-care can also encompass intellectual self-care, which is any pursuit that engages your curiosity and creativity. You may find drawing or painting creatively fulfilling, for example, or enroll in classes to indulge your interest in history. These activities can help you grow, thrive, and cultivate a sense of meaning and purpose in life and motivate you toward healthy goals.
Social self-care
Evidence suggests that unrelenting isolation and loneliness can take a toll on mental health and even affect your physical well-being by exacerbating depression symptoms and weakening your immune system.
Social self-care, which involves fostering a sense of belonging with others, can help shield you from the negative consequences of isolation. This form of self-care could include nurturing current friendships, familial bonds, or romantic relationships.
However, forging new connections can also be important. From doing volunteer work with strangers to enjoying group activities with close friends, there are many ways to take care of your social well-being.
Spiritual self-care
Spiritual self-care involves connecting with something bigger than yourself, such as a higher power or the natural world, or looking inward for wisdom and understanding.
Spiritual self-care can benefit your mental and emotional health in all sorts of ways. You may foster a sense of meaning through reading and studying scriptures, for example. Or prayer, meditation, and reflective practices can strengthen your sense of security and bolster your resilience.
Regularly attending religious services can create a sense of belonging that fends off loneliness. Connecting with nature can be a soothing experience that brings you inner peace.
Benefits of self-care on mental health
Taking time for self-care can lead to fewer physical health issues, a longer lifespan, and an improved sense of overall well-being. However, it can also benefit your mental health in the following ways:
Less stress. Making time to care for yourself can decrease your overall stress. Spending a night socializing with friends can help you unwind after a difficult day at work, for example, leaving you feeling rejuvenated and less tense the next day. Or walking or jogging can help relieve stress after spending a day caring for an aging parent.
Decreased risk of burnout. A 2021 study found that self-care in the form of mindfulness practices could increase job satisfaction and reduce the risk of burnout. Self-care activities, in general, can help you maintain a healthier work-life balance.
Improved mood, focus, and productivity. Certain habits, such as getting enough sleep, can improve your mood and focus. After caring for yourself, you’ll likely have an easier time staying on task in other areas of your life as well.
Better self-awareness. Self-reflection activities, such as journaling and meditation, allow you to turn your attention inward and explore your needs, motives, and behavior patterns.
Increased self-esteem and confidence. Treating your body to healthy meals and regular exercise can improve your own body image. Self-care also involves practicing self-compassion and cultivating a kinder inner monologue. In other words, by quietening the negative voice in your head, you can feel better about yourself and boost your self-esteem.
Self-care tips and strategies
Before you can reap the mental health benefits of self-care, you’ll need to figure out how to start your journey. If you’re not used to prioritizing your own needs, you may feel a little self-conscious or even guilty about taking time for yourself.
Keep in mind that self-care can encompass many different types of activities. You can settle on the best type of self-care for you by determining what your needs are, setting goals, and then holding yourself accountable to meeting those goals.
Whatever your specific goals are, though, taking time to de-stress, manage your emotions, and connect with others are all universally important elements of self-care.
Tip 1: Build a personalized self-care plan
While self-care goals and routines can differ from person to person, these tips can help you create a self-care plan that’s right for you.
Assess your needs. Consider the current issues you want to address or areas of your life you may have been neglecting recently. You may want to make more time for exercise or spiritual practices, for example. Or you may want to better manage stress or care for a chronic health condition, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
Set self-care goals. Take some time to create goals for the day, week, or month ahead. This list can include the specific activity you want to do, as well as information such as a time and location. For example, you might commit to one hour of weekly meal preparation on a Sunday night, 30 minutes of jogging on a Monday morning, or walking three times a week after work.
Get as specific as you want. You might decide to create different workout routines for different days of the week, or create a list of healthy foods to incorporate into each evening meal.
Gather necessary resources. Recipes, instructional videos, wellness apps—make sure you have whatever tools and information you need to get started. Also consider using alarms, calendars, or other planning tools to make sure you stay on track with your self-care goals.
When it comes to self-care for chronic health conditions, one resource could be your doctor or a mental health professional. They can likely help you come up with specific and effective practices to better manage your condition.
Tip 2: Keep yourself accountable
A self-care plan isn’t etched in stone. Plan to revisit and revise it regularly using the following tips.
Monitor the results. Of course, you’ll want to self-monitor certain health metrics if you have a condition like high blood pressure or diabetes. However, you can also check in with yourself in other ways. If you still feel overwhelmed by stress, for example, you likely need to adapt, change, or extend a self-care session. Or if you feel exhausted or bored by an exercise routine, you may need to cut back or add some variation to your workouts.
Be patient with yourself. Don’t punish yourself if you don’t meet a goal. Instead, ask yourself, “What stopped me from reaching that goal?” If it was something internal, such as a loss of motivation, maybe you need to come up with ways to reward yourself for persevering. If it was something external, such as a scheduling conflict, perhaps you can find ways to adjust your calendar. You might even discover that your original goal was a little too ambitious or you tried to make too many changes at once.
Make adjustments when necessary. Your goals don’t need to remain fixed forever. Things change. You might have new work responsibilities that require you to shift your exercise schedule, for example. Or you may have to change your jogging route due to construction. Stay flexible and be creative when change is necessary.
Reschedule with yourself. If something unexpected comes up, such as an extended work trip, try to reschedule rather than scrap your self-care goal entirely. Think of how you’d handle postponing a date with a partner. Move it to a different day, but commit to still showing up.
Tip 3: Adopt relaxation techniques
Stress can affect virtually every area of your life, so managing it is a crucial part of self-care. Try to have a list of regular relaxation techniques that help you relax and unwind.
For some people, a relaxation practice might be as simple as going for a walk in nature, listening to comforting music, or a daily meditation. Here are some other ideas to experiment with.
Deep breathing. Slow, cleansing breaths can activate your body’s parasympathetic nervous system—the opposite of the fight-or-flight stress response. A variety of deep breathing techniques exist, and you can easily combine them with other relaxation practices. For example, you might focus on your breathing as you sit in the tub, lie on the grass at a park, or use any of the following techniques.
[Listen: Deep Breathing Meditation]
Progressive muscle relaxation. This technique requires you to gradually tense and then relax different muscle groups. Its purpose is to help you explore how tension—often a physical symptom of stress—feels throughout the body and what it feels like to release that tension. Like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation can also be used in combination with other relaxation practices.
Visualization. During visualization or guided imagery exercises, you use your imagination to conjure up a soothing scene. Maybe you picture yourself sitting in a hammock in your favorite park or spread out on a beach blanket. Or perhaps you choose a more abstract visual, like a ball of stress melting away. You can incorporate aids like soothing music or calming scents to enhance the experience.
Tip 4: Learn to manage your emotions
Have you been neglecting your self-care? One way to find the answer is by building emotional intelligence (EQ). EQ is your ability to identify your emotions and understand why they arise. By increasing your EQ, you may learn to connect your emotional dips with the need for more self-care.
Improving your EQ can also enable you to use emotions for positive purposes, such as communicating more effectively or empathizing with others. This, in turn, can help you achieve social self-care goals. Here are some tips for using EQ in self-care.
Self-validate. Although you can often count on loved ones to lend an ear when you’re down, it’s also important to acknowledge your own emotions and explore what’s driving them. For example, without self-validation, you might simply write off your anger as a passing mood. However, if you get curious about the feeling and consider the possible causes, you can make important discoveries. Perhaps you’re still grieving the loss of a loved one, for example, or maybe you’re angry because coworkers have breached your boundaries.
Turn emotion into action. Rather than suppress emotions or shame yourself for experiencing them, use them to compel yourself into action. When you’re feeling low, don’t wait for something to come along and boost your mood. Think of ways you can uplift yourself, whether that involves phoning a friend, going for a walk, or journaling.
Practice self-compassion. Aim to be less self-critical when you make mistakes and experience setbacks. Instead, be patient and nonjudgmental. Talk to yourself as if you were talking to a friend. What would you say to someone you cared about to acknowledge their pain? Also, strive to be self-accepting when you’re dealing with unpleasant emotions. Know that it’s normal to feel negative emotions like anger, sadness, and disgust.
[Read: Emotional Intelligence Toolkit]
Tip 5: Build your social network
Building social support can go hand-in-hand with meeting other self-care goals. Friends can inspire you to keep up with a workout routine, for example, or motivate you to stick with a healthy eating plan. Socializing with people who care about you can also be an effective stress-reducing activity and bolster your resilience.
Invite people in. Look for ways to deepen your existing connections. Ask a coworker or casual acquaintance to join you for a coffee or lunch break. You can also tie your socializing in with other self-care goals. Try inviting friends or family members to join you for a weekly meal-prep session or bike ride in the park.
Join groups and clubs that align with self-care practices. You can nurture your interests while also expanding your social circle. If you have a self-care goal of being more active, consider joining a local swimming club or sports team. For spiritual self-care, you might join a religious organization. Yoga and meditation groups can help you meet your mental self-care goals.
Volunteer. Although volunteer work involves serving others, it’s another way to cultivate a sense of belonging, an important element of social self-care. Through volunteering, you can also find a sense of purpose and accomplishment, as well as being a part of something bigger than yourself.
Prioritize self-care for your mental health today
Self-care is crucial for your physical, mental, and emotional well-being—and even your happiness. Of course, it doesn’t always feel easy to make time for yourself. Start slowly, if necessary, gradually carving out moments for yourself and setting your sights on one goal at a time.
Remember not to shame yourself or feel guilty for setting aside time for self-care. Instead, congratulate yourself for taking steps to improve your mental health and overall well-being. In time, some of these activities may turn into healthy habits that you do automatically, without much thought, and benefit your life in many different ways.
Last updated or reviewed on August 27, 2024
