Estimate reading time: 7 minutes
In a world that often demands our constant attention and energy, taking time to care for ourselves isn’t selfish or something to be earned—it’s essential. Self-care doesn’t have to mean expensive spa days or elaborate routines; it’s about finding simple, meaningful ways to support your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Whether this be through finding ways to relax, or engaging in activities that you are passionate about, self-care is for everyone.
What is Self-Care?
Self-care is the practice of taking care of yourself so that you can maintain and improve your own health, well-being, and happiness.
In nurturing yourself, you want to make sure you’re honouring your mind, body, and spirit. Caring for yourself is one way to feel better aligned with yourself and to find a sense of peace, which doesn’t necessarily look the same for everyone.
Regularly practicing self-care can lead to lower stress levels and more mental calmness that then pours into your physical body and in turn can support our sleep, stress management, and overall wellness to name a few things.
Self-Care Subcategories
We can divide self-care into 4 subcategories with those being physical, emotional, social, and spiritual.
- Physical self-care includes activities that impact your physical health and well-being in a positive way
- Emotional self-care can include things like journalling, crying, talking, etc.—anything that’s going to help you release any feelings that have been building up, including stress
- Social self-care includes things like spending time with family and friends, volunteering, or other activities that help you feel connected to and supported by others
- Spiritual self-care is practices that help you feel connected to, and have a sense of belonging in the world
Consider reflecting on your self-care practices while also brainstorming new ideas you could use through using a Self-Care Wheel exercise from the University of Alberta Student Union’s Peer Support Centre. Writing down self-care practices you resonate with or want to try can help you in the future if there ever comes a time where you aren’t sure what may help you feel cared for.
Self-Care Ideas
There are no right or wrong ways to practice self-care. What works for your someone else may not work for you, and that’s okay. The important thing is to choose practices that genuinely support your well-being. As long as it helps you feel better, more balanced, or more like yourself, then it’s a good practice and worth doing.
Below are some self-care ideas. There are more than listed here so do your best to try and customize things to what works best for you!
Physical Self-Care Ideas
Physical self-care includes activities that impact your physical health and well-being in a positive way. This can include things like:
- Introducing movement into your daily life such as through walking, running, stretching, strength training, etc. as well as engaging in things like hiking, fishing, hunting, and other outdoor activities
- Practicing healthy eating habits – everything in moderation!
- Hydrating with roughly 8 glasses of water a day
- Sleeping! For more information on sleep hygiene, consider checking out blog posts here
In addition to these things, it’s important to be practical in caring for yourself as well. This can include:
- Keeping up with your hygiene through regularly showering, brushing your teeth, taking care of your hair and skin, beard, etc.
- Taking time to get ready – sometimes if you look good through offering care to yourself, you feel good too!
- Regularly scheduling physical exams, dentist check ups, eye doctor appointments, massages, etc.
- Listening to your body and giving it what it wants such as a yummy comfort food, time to relax, or movement
Emotional Self-Care Ideas
Emotional self-care includes ways you can express your emotions and feelings. For example:
- Talking with a friend, family member, colleague, or professional
- Crying
- Learning/practicing breathing exercises
- Expressing yourself through creation such as painting, drawing, colouring, listening to or playing music, dancing, etc.
Other forms of emotional self-care can take the form of:
- Identifying triggers – this can be vital in emotionally processing things that have happened and offering self-compassion to yourself; consider using a triggers worksheet to guide this process
- Journalling and/or creative writing; consider using journalling prompts or creative writing prompts
- Practicing positive self-talk and affirmations
- Watching a feel good motivational movie, or alternatively, a sad one if a good cry will help you feel supported
Social Self-Care Ideas
Social self-care includes interactions that help us feel connected to and supported by others. This can include spending time with friends and family through things like:
- Meeting in person, having a video call, sending them a text, etc.
- Having a games night or playing video games with friends
- Going out for a meal or cooking/baking together
- Watching a movie together
- Creating together (crafts, art, jamming together, karaoke, etc.)
- Visiting a museum, going to a concert, trying out an escape room, etc.
In addition to spending time with friends and family, practicing social self-care can include things like:
- Volunteering
- Celebrating achievements with those you love, especially the small things
- Asking for help, whether this be through talking with an elder, mentor, parent, etc. or seeking professional support
- Setting healthy boundaries – limiting social interactions can also be a form of self-care, especially if your social battery is running low
Spiritual Self-Care Ideas
Spiritual self-care includes things that help us feel connected to, and have a sense of belonging to the world. For example:
- Engaging in religious practices such as praying, taking part in ceremonies like sweat lodges, smudging, or mass, reading religious texts, etc.
- Engaging in reflection through journaling, setting goals, self-assessing where you are in your journey and the contributions you want to give, etc.
- Learning more about yourself
- Spending time in nature
Other practices that may help foster a sense of spiritual self-care include:
- Practicing gratitude daily, weekly, or as needed
- Engaging in cultural practices such as learning more about your culture, cooking/eating traditional foods, celebrating holidays such as Chinese New Year, engaging in ceremonies like feasts, debuts, and quinceañeras, etc.
- Engaging in fellowship and community
- Practicing mindfulness – follow this link for ideas
Self-Care Calendar
If you aren’t really sure what self-care works for you or you’re just wanting to try something new, try out this self-care calendar.
This low stakes, high reward schedule was made with the intention of exposing you to some different types of self-care that you can experiment with. In this way, feel free to adjust this calendar if some activities aren’t your cup of tea (though you may be surprised to find enjoyment in certain activities that you’ve never tried before!)
Additionally, you can always try creating your own self-care schedule as well so that you have a personalized challenge to try. Maybe every night you want to prioritize reading for 20 minutes, or every Thursday you want to bake something new. Again, self-care is personalized as everyone feels cared for in their own ways.
For even more ideas, follow this link.
Additional Resources
Websites:
Apps:
Books:
- Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
- The Power of Now
- The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook: A Proven Way to Accept Yourself, Build Inner Strength, and Thrive
Blog post adapted from the McKinney Psychology presentation Self-Care & Mindfulness: How to Integrate These Practices Into Your Daily Living as part of our Path to Wellness Series. For more information, please contact our office.