What’s Your Self-Care Strategy? Create Your Own Self-Care Checklist
By Christina Fenske
While life can often be challenging with many ups and downs, it can push you to confront some of your demons that are hard to handle, can stretch your emotional capacity, and increase your resilience to life’s difficulties. One’s overall mental health and well-being may be noticeably struggling, while we try to hold things together. These rough times can make us stronger and push us to look at making our self-care more of a priority. As often our self-care falls short when we’re consumed and focusing on other people or situations in our lives.
It can seem much easier to get through stressful circumstances when we’re feeling physically, and mentally healthier because it is easier. It’s also smoother and more effective to navigate these stressors in more productive ways. This is why self-care strategies are so essential to increasing our overall mind and body wellness.
That said self-care for everybody can look quite different. You may enjoy reading to relax and your partner may enjoy journaling or reading the newspaper. We all have different needs, even in healthy relationships -some people may have the need for love and belonging and companionship, while others may have a need for more exercise or recreation.
So there is no right or wrong way to do self-care, nor is there a one-size-fits-all list of self-care strategies that can work for everyone. No matter what some people may have you believe. So how do you figure out what works for you? Well…to get an idea of what works for you, you may have to try different things. It’s critical to identify what needs you may have that aren’t being met and what specific self-care strategy can meet that need. To start identifying our self-care needs we may look at and reflect on our own specific needs, routines, or time constraints. It can take some time to figure this out and plan something that works best for you but ultimately you’ll likely find this is worth the payoff in the end. You’re worth the investment.
To begin, a few things to consider and ask yourself
Am I going to use this specific method?
Of course, if you don’t implement your self-care plan it won’t be helpful to you.
Don’t force yourself to do things that you truly dislike or don’t enjoy. You won’t stick with something you don’t enjoy. If one thing doesn’t work out or you notice you’re not enjoying it, try something else as there are other options available.
Financially, how does your plan impact you?
You don’t want to join an expensive yoga studio if you’re not planning on attending regularly. You may feel more concerned about the cost than how much value it’s bringing to your life. While at the same time, it’s okay to spend some and a reasonable amount of money on things that bring joy to your life.
Something to consider as an example is maybe you work long hours, and don’t have the energy to cook so opt instead for getting takeout because this allows more time with your kids. Keeping in mind you should only do this if you can afford to, then doing so is worth it. If the cost increases your stress then it may not be worth it.
Are you stretching yourself too thin, by doing too much?
Even though self-care can be really helpful. Trying to do too much can also overwhelm or burn you out.
If you do too much you can become stressed out and feel more depleted which defeats the purpose. Oversheduling yourself with activities you enjoy can leave you without time to think about your thoughts, digest them which is important to your self-care plan.
Is there enough time?
The best self-care practices are ones that are done regularly. It should be done consistently and not only when your feeling life’s stressors. Doing self-care on a consistent basis can assist you in avoiding or eliminating or getting to the high point of your stress. While you may have to work, or have other responsiblities, try to set self-care strategies as the ultimate goal.
What have you done in the past that worked for you?
We all have a time in our past that we can recall that made us happy or we felt positive about our life. You may need to go back to a moment in your childhood or in your teen years. What do you think helps with this particular thought process?
Maybe it was the time you sat on the beach reading a book without any responsibilities of children or work, or even a time you played a childhood game with a friend.
Participating in your own self-care on a regular basis has been shown to decrease and even eliminate depression, anxiety or stress, increase concentration and minimize anger, and frustration.
When you think about past memories can assist in providing relaxing calm to you life.
Explore and identify what your physical needs are
Think about how can you include those ways of creating peace into your life by looking at the past moments and actions that led to better wellness for you.
Some physical needs may include your sleep routine, healthcare needs, nutrition goals, exercise, physical intimacy, and much more.
Self Care Checklist – Ideas To Spark The Imagination
Create Your Own Self-Care Plan
Check out our other Self-Care Strategies read about Best Sleep Strategies and The Key To Happiness Is By Meeting Your Needs.
