Self care is a very hot topic right now, which is fantastic because people are finally starting to realize that prioritizing your health is NECESSARY for success. Self care allows you to avoid burn out and to make sure that you are continuously keeping your mental and physical health front of mind. 

However, it isn’t always easy to fit self care into your life, and there are many myths and prejudgments surrounding the topic of self care. 

When do you schedule it?

How often do I do self care?

What does self care look like?

How do I know I am doing it right? 

These are all valid questions and concerns that I am going to address today in this post. At the end of the post, I will also be offering you a printable self care tracker that you can use to make sure that you are keeping up with your mental and physical health. 

1. WHEN/HOW DO YOU SCHEDULE SELF CARE?

The long short answer is that self care scheduling looks different for everyone! For some, self care may be in small bursts every day, but for others self care may be a full or half day once a week. Regardless of when/how you schedule it, you just have to make it happen. 

I personally do not have the time to schedule a full/half day off every week for self care, so I opt for small bursts every day. The trick here is that YOU NEED to plan this time like you would any other appointment. Regardless of what kind of calendar or organization system you use, you need to put it in the calendar. Block out the time and make it non-negotiable. 

2. WHAT DOES SELF CARE LOOK LIKE? 

There are many different forms of self care, and none of them are better than others. Throughout your life/years/months you will go through different ebbs and flows, and with this will come different types of self care. It is important to constantly be listening to your mind and body and what it NEEDS through every season of life. 

Typically self care can be broken down into 6 categories including:

1. Physical Self Care

Physical self care can include anything that will nourish your physical body. This could include exercise, eating well, relaxing your body with a Netflix binge, going to the spa, or taking a nice relaxing bath. 

2. Emotional Self Care

Emotional self care allows you to express and accept the emotions in which you are feeling. Activities for emotional self care could include simply releasing emotions, so crying if you need to (without self judgement), meditating, repeating affirmations, or any form of activity that allows you to rid emotions. 

3. Personal Self Care

This form of self care is more about personal development. For this self care you are meant to explore and discover new passions and hobbies that you enjoy. Activities for personal self care could include art, writing, a new sport, knitting, sewing, returning back to school to take a course, online courses, etc. Anything that helps you to develop as a person will qualify. 

4. Social Self Care

Social self care focuses on deepening and nurturing the relationships that you have with others in your life. This form of self care is important for everyone no matter if you are introverted, extroverted, or somewhere in between. For social self care you could do anything that would allow you to deepen your relationship with a friend or loved one. This could include a physical activity, a nice dinner date, an afternoon tea, a skype call with a loved one, or really any form of connection. 

5. Spiritual Self Care

Whether you identify with a religion or not, we all have a form of spirituality to us. For this form of self care engaging in activities like meditation, yoga, singing worship songs, meeting with people of your faith, praying, or other forms of religious sacraments will work. 

6. Practical Self Care 

Finally, practical self care is a form of self care that helps you feel in control of your life. This could include getting your financials in order, planning your week/month, organizing a neglected part of your home, purging your closet, or really anything that helps you feel more organized and prepared. 

So as you can see there are many forms of self care and many activities that are possible for self care. So balancing out all of these types of self care will vary depending on your life cycle at the moment. 

3. HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM DOING IT RIGHT?

Spoiler alert, YOU ARE. 

There is no WRONG way to go about self care, but it does take some time to understand what your body needs and craves depending on the time in your life. 

So, be patient, listen to your body, schedule in the time, and you will discover that you feel a lot more on top of your game and in control when you do. 

In order to help you with your journey with self care, I have created a FREE worksheet to help track your self care. 

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Your trusty, gutsy gal,

Nathalie xx

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