Self-care, in recent times, has become an integral part of life. People have started realizing that life without self care is just not possible. Caring for yourself becomes important as we shift towards a focused quality growth in life. The standard of living is not just materialistic anymore with good food, good aesthetics, and good surroundings, but also a good life. A meaningful life that is vibrant, and lively, and makes one live their day happily. And if you ask me, you somewhere are already practicing self care. Even if you are yet to come across a self care coach, self care is already making your life better.
How?
Let’s look into the patterns of self care behavior and understand where you stand now and how much more can you walk to make a better you thrive.
What does Self Care look like?
Self care is a very broad concept that results in making you live a better life in all aspects. It makes you understand your purpose of existence better, gives you better insights into the way you live, and helps you in finding a way to keep improving. You get to know yourself deeply. Your needs, wants, desires, dreams, and destination, everything comes into your focus. You get to see things clearly, understand the differences between these terms, and work towards a life that knows how to balance all these words simultaneously.
If you wish to know more about self care before proceeding, read: Why should one make self-care goals?
What is the Self-Care Theory of Behavior?
Where self care helps you in so many ways, self care behaviors are the steering that drives you there. It is the self care behaviors that inculcate self care habits in you that in the longer term show you miracles in life. Though it is a simple concept that each one of us is practicing with or without knowing about its existence, this idea was developed by nursing theorist Dorothea Orem who suggested that that individuals have the ability and responsibility to engage in self-care behaviors to enhance their well-being.
He classified the self care behavior can be classified into three categories:
- Self care Maintenance: The bare minimum a person must give is what the first category of self care behavior is all about—the habits and actions you take to avoid illness, health issues, and other avoidable circumstances. For eg, when you head out in cold weather, you ensure that your head is covered well, and you carry extra warm clothes while traveling. This is the least that you can do to take care of yourself. In fact, this is something that you must do.
- Self care Monitoring: What is the point of maintaining yourself if it is not done rightly? Would you ever want to hurt yourself even when you are taking great care of yourself? For instance, you know ice creams make your throat sore and then you suffer for the next coming week, would you ever consume ice creams again? And even if you do, would you not do it while taking measures that it doesn’t harm your throat? Once you are into the self care behavior or maintenance, monitoring it will help you understand whether you are doing it rightly. So now when you wake up early, you are monitoring how it is giving you more time to exercise, clean, or sit with yourself. Only this way will you be able to realize waking up early requires you to sleep early for your body to have a relaxed output. Self care monitoring is important!
- Self care management: Once you know how to maintain your self care, and you monitor your habits to understand what works and what doesn’t, you’ll be able to manage your self care routine in the longer run. If you monitor that you feel tired by noon because you wake up early and do not get enough sleep, you will be able to manage your sleep cycle by going to bed early. Only once you monitor that there is a need to go to bed early, would you be able to manage to end your last-minute chores early in order to sleep on time. The three categories of self care behavior help you achieve milestones that only you can win by yourself. But all these three categories are important and should be practiced in sync.
The 7 self care behaviors you should know
- Care to your health: Inbuilt habits that promote good health. Exercising, meditating, cycling, and running, can be the self care behavior towards good physical health. Similarly, journaling, breathing exercises, listening to self talks, and enrolling in a self care coaching program, are self care behaviors toward good mental health. Talk to your friends, and family, be socially available to people in need, and you’ll see that your emotional health starts improving. The best part? Working on one is definitely going to improve the rest.
- A balanced diet: Since classes 4 and 5, we’ve been studying the importance of good food and why we need to have a proper balanced diet. So try having enough nutrients in the amount that is required. If you do not wish to get nutrition for this, you can download HealthifyMe, I found it useful when I started my journey of implicating this self care behavior in my schedule. Their free version was enough for a great start.
- Physical Activity: Self care behaviors that include self care activities with physical movement are not just good for your health and digestion but also impact your hormones and mood. Avoiding long hours of sitting, walking after dinner, playing outdoor sports like badminton, or Walking instead of taking a commute to short distances, all are physical activities that add to your growth. They might be small or insignificant spaces in self care behavior but they bring significant changes and should be utilized as much as possible.
- Rest and Sleep: It is not just you. I don’t feel taking complete rest is important when the time requires more hard work and life demands presence in various places to not miss out on anything. But rest is important. A nap after lunch for 10 minutes can do wonders. The sleep cycle is important. The amount of sleep you need can be completely decided by you, but the quality of sleep is something that you need to earn. Every day. Every minute. Visit me on divinebuddy.com and let’s chat about how we can earn it on an everyday basis.
- Stress Management: Everyone in their life is suffering from something or the other. If a person has 10 rupees they are dreaming of 100. Ones with 100 are after 1000. And it is absolutely fine to keep building dreams. In Fact, I find it necessary in life to keep my personal development going. But one needs to understand the importance of balancing growth while cherishing the present. And this is possible with stress management. Because then you are looking forward to the new achievement but happy with the current one too. It’s like the subtle art of keeping your comfort while not being in it. Confused? I’m telling you! Let’s chat! You’ll get to know there’s so much more to life.
- Interpersonal relations: There is simply no point in caring for yourself if you do not interact with the people around you. When you create good bonding, you generate a sense of your personality being good. People around you help lift you up at times of your distress. You get to learn a lot more insights into life, where you are, and how you can proceed toward the next point you’ve targeted.
- Safety Practices: If you start earning 10,000 every day but also spend it randomly on consuming things, then is there any point in working so hard? Same is treasuring your life and its safety. There is no point in driving at great speed if you have to reach somewhere or no point in eating junk because you only live once. If your body is also living only once, would you not want it to live at its best? When you engage in self care behaviors, try keeping yourself safe. Avoid accidents with useless people, baseless roads, and a visionless future.
In conclusion, self-care is not a one-size-fits-all concept; it involves understanding your unique needs and incorporating a variety of practices into your daily life. It’s like caring for your self everyday. Loving you and giving you a purpose of why every morning is a fresh one and how can you make a better living out of it.
And, I could be your divine buddy in making you realize the useful people, well well-found road, and a vision-filled future.