Self Care: Looking After Yourself Isn’t Just About What You Eat

A lot of the time, when people mention self care, you probably think about things like watching what you eat, making sure that you are keeping up with your exercise routine and maybe having a facial or two here and there. However, the reality of this is so much more complicated. The reason for this is that there are so many ways to look after yourself. There’s not just one thing that you have got to do to be able to say that you are looking after yourself in the best way. In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the things that you could try, so keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.

Seeing Friends

The first thing that we are going to recommend is that you are always making time for your friends. If you find your mental health starting to decline, you may start to isolate yourslrf. The problem with this is that it’s only ever going to make it worse, not better. Your friends are going to worry, you’re slowly going to be declining in isolation and there isn’t a thing that anyone will be able to do. As such, even when it seems hard, you need to ensure that you are still going out and meeting with the people that you care about. Your friends have a way of making you feel better about yourself, even if it’s something that you can’t see right now.

Remembering The Good Times

Another thing that you can try is sitting down and remembering the good times. It’s always a good idea to have personal items all over your home such as photos of the best days of your life. Ideally, you should have as many as you can, so that when you look over at them you can smile, remembering that even though you aren’t feeling great right now, one day you will again. Check out a photo printing service if you don’t have any of your memories up in your home at the moment, because it’s always a nice thing do.

If you don’t want to put photos up in your home, you can simply make an album on your phone of some of the best times and then flick through this when you’re feeling an little down. You will have that feeling again one day, we promise you.

Meeting New People

While it might not seem like it, meeting new people is actually a really good form of self care. You are making sure that your social skills are in full force, not letting them drift away when things are getting tough. Sometimes, meeting new people is the exact new thing that you need in order to appreciate the life that you’re in. We’re not saying that you necessarily don’t already, but it’s really easy to forget sometimes.

It might even be the case that the new person you meet turns out to be not great. They could be awful when it comes down to it, and this means that you have a reminder about how good your friends actually are. You don’t usually hear about things like this being associated with self care, but we believe that it’s an important part of it. It’s not just about you physically, it’s about your understanding of the world around you as well.

Taking A Break

The most important rule of self care is that if you need a break, you take a break. It really is as simple as this. You should never feel pressured into doing anything, and you should never feel as though you cannot rest. This is why a lot of people end up burned out and depressed, because they didn’t stop and take a break, even though they knew they needed it. For some reason, we seem to have got it into our heads that we are not allowed to rest and we are not allowed to leave when we feel uncomfortable in a situation. You can, and you should. If you aren’t happy with something, you are allowed to say that, and if nothing changes, you are allowed to walk away.

Never sacrifice your mental health just to make someone else feel more comfortable. If you ever feel as though you need a break, then take one. At the end of the day, nothing is ever going to be more important than your well being.

Letting Go Of Things

The final piece of advice that we have for you is that you have got to learn to let things go. It’s not easy, but sometimes holding on to things that we have no ability to change is going to hurt so much more. It’s not about forgetting, it’s about breaking it down, understanding why what happened, happened, and then accepting it. This will really help you move on from the things that are holding you back right now.

We completely understand that it’s not something that is going to happen over night. In fact, for some people it takes months or even years for this to happen, but it will happen. When it does, you are going to feel so much lighter and happier, you’re not going to be able to believe it. Look after yourself by understanding you cannot control everything, and you shouldn’t try to. That’s not to say things won’t hurt, but eventually, they won’t hurt as much.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you should be doing when it comes to looking after yourself. The thing that you have got to keep in mind is that when someone says self care, they aren’t just talking about your diet and exercise routine. There is so much more to it than that, and if you are ever doubting this or stuck as to what steps to take to look after yourself, refer back to this article. We wish you the very best of luck.