Self-Care: Making Choices for Your Long-Term Well-Being

Many people believe that self-care is all about taking a bath, lighting candles, relaxing, sleeping or indulging. When you think “self-care” you think “ways to relieve my stress and help me ignore all my problems”. There are more ways than one to think about self-care. Self-care can also involve things that will truly help you achieve your goals, make you a more productive person, and improve the quality in your everyday life. Traditional conceptions of self-care, like relaxation are still valid in helping you do what you love and recharge after stressful days. Sometimes, self-care involves doing some of the most daunting things on your to-do list and facing problems head on. Finding ways to accomplish these tasks will allow you to understand which methods are more helpful as opposed to letting your mind wander and forgetting about responsibilities.

Taking time to organize your life and making sure you’re on top of things is another form of self-care. Knowing when your next assignment is due, building yourself a study schedule, and creating to-do-list are beneficial methods of accomplishing tasks and minimizing stress. Making time to exercise, cutting out toxic personal relationships from your life, and disconnecting from technology are also forms of self-care. Those these activities seem hard, they allow focus on the self and ensure that life is easier in the long run.

Self-care doesn’t always mean you need to take a bubble bath or grab your favourite dessert before watching Netflix. Self-care shouldn’t always be about escaping everyday life; self-care should be composed of activities that improve your life and more it enjoyable. It involves not trying to “fix yourself” but taking care of yourself instead. This approach to self-care will assist you in fixing issues that are taking away from life’s enjoyment and ensure that you are relaxed.

In order to truly care for yourself and continue on in becoming the person you want to be, meeting your own needs is important. Straying away from meeting the needs of others first makes it difficult to succeed in life. Try your best to cross those small annoying tasks off your to-do list so that your life can be more positive and fulfilling. Remember that self-care is about making choices for your long term well being.