Written by: Libbie Fang
Introduction
Significantly during recent years, the concept of “self-care” has risen in popularity, especially through social media where trends including living the “That Girl” lifestyle by using gua sha, drinking lemon water, doing face masks, practicing meditation, and many more are frequently promoted. Now, many individuals have adopted these trends into their daily lives. But what does “self-care” really mean and how can it benefit us? To understand this question, it is important to delve beneath surface-level trends and truly understand the purpose and impact that self-care has on our lives.
What Self-Care REALLY is:
Self-care refers to taking care of your overall well-being in terms of mental, spiritual, physical, financial, environmental, and social health. Because countless factors play into maintaining a healthy lifestyle, there are also many aspects to self-care since the one fundamental goal in self-care is to achieve wellness.
As previously mentioned, self-care may involve specific activities or habits similar to those that are trending but is not limited to the most commonly discussed exercises. In fact, there is a broad selection of self-care activities, so that self-care can look different and vary between individuals since what works for someone may not be the best fit for another. What matters is that such practices can aid individuals in feeling their best both physically and emotionally.
Types of Self-Care: Implementing new Practices
One of the primary aspects of self-care is working on your mental health. To provide a few examples, mental self-care includes setting boundaries for yourself in all of the relationships in an individual’s life such as saying no when there is something you’re not comfortable with and prioritizing your wellbeing over everything else. In addition, finding time to reflect or simply having downtime, whether through reading, journaling, meditation, or other hobbies, is another way to take care of your emotional health. Although spending time alone to take care of your mental health is crucial, humans also require social activities, so this means connecting with loved ones and spending time socializing is also a big part of maintaining a healthy mental state. Lastly, the way you speak to yourself matters. Be nice to yourself. By repeating positive affirmations to yourself, you can create a healthy relationship with yourself and benefit your mental health.
Aside from emotional self-care, taking care of your physical body is equally important. Doing so would include fueling your body with nutrients, having a sufficient water intake, sustaining a regular sleep schedule, exercising, going outdoors, and getting sunlight. All in all, taking care of your health comes in many forms, such as the forms listed above, and there are plenty of ways that identify as practices of self-care.
Benefits of Self-care:
Though some may feel that self-care is time-consuming and may not see the point in practicing self-care habits, there are countless benefits involved with it, such as improved overall well-being, self-esteem, mood, and optimism.
How Does Self-Care Work?
By learning why self-care works by understanding the science behind it, individuals can establish a better knowledge of how they can take care of themselves.
During moments when the human body feels threatened, cortisol, the stress hormone, is released by the brain, evoking the body’s fight-or-flight (sympathetic) responses. Self-care impacts the nervous system by decreasing both cortisol levels and the body’s sympathetic responses.
Furthermore, individuals can “hack” the happiness chemicals, dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and endorphins by learning about how each of them functions and triggers their happy chemicals through certain practices.
Dopamine: associated with motivation, reward, and excitement
Having activities with a goal to look forward to
Engaging in friendly competitions or games
Using checklists
Oxytocin: Associated with Love, Social activities and Physical Affection
Socializing with loved ones
Playing with a pet
Giving someone a hug
Serotonin: the Mood Stabilizer
Going out in the sun
Creating a daily sleep routine
Eating foods rich in tryptophan (eggs, pineapples, salmon, nuts, tofu, etc.)
Endorphins: the Pain Reliever
Laughing
Exercising and sweating
Listening to music
Conclusion
Self-care can vary greatly between individuals and includes many factors, but investing time into taking care of yourself can greatly and effectively benefit every individual’s daily life. Ultimately, the main objective of self-care is to care for your well-being and ensure that you are the best version of yourself, both physically and mentally.
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