8 Areas Of Self-Care
September is Self–Care Awareness Month, a time to remind us that taking care of ourselves, first and foremost, is essential. Self-care is often neglected in our everyday lives. We all tend to put others needs before our own, but it is crucial to remember that we cannot fill another’s cup from our empty vessel.
At Peace & Pure, we suggest using the month of September to make self-care a part of your daily routine – practice being good to yourself. There are multitudes of ways to incorporate self-care into your ritual. It can be as simple as a conscious breath in the morning, having a bubble bath after a day of work or as luxurious as time away from the pressures of everyday life and stresses.
Self-care is personal, depending on each person’s understanding and preference. Still, we want to introduce the 8 different areas of self-care, including Physical, Emotional, Social, Spiritual, Personal, Environmental, Financial and Career, as a reminder and inspiration for your own self-care plans.
Physical self-care includes good sleep, stretching, engaging in exercise, healthy food and walks. There are many scientific benefits to physical self-care, especially sleep. With an adequate amount of 7-8 hours of sleep every night, you can prevent chronic diseases, avoid negative thoughts, and increase your productivity. Like Dalai Lama once said ‘’sleep is the best meditation’’.
Emotional self-care includes stress management, emotional maturity, forgiveness, compassion and kindness. At Peace & Pure, we believe emotional self-care is important for building resilience or bouncing back from stress and life challenges.
Social self-care includes setting boundaries, support systems, positive social media, communication and being ok with asking for help. After the last 18 months, we understand how important it has been to reach out to others when feeling isolated. Either calling a close friend, or meeting up with a friend for a walk and talk can be helpful.
Spiritual self-care is any ritual or practice that we do to further our connection with our higher self. When you begin to practice consistent spiritual self-care, you can expect to nurture your connection to yourself and a higher power to create spiritual practices that fuel both your body and soul. This includes allowing time alone, meditation and yoga, connection with nature and journaling.
Personal self-care includes enjoying new hobbies, personal identity and honouring your true self. There are many ways to honour your true self; stop worrying about what others think of you, develop positive habits, focus on the positives and feel comfortable with saying no.
Environmental self-care includes safety, healthy living environments, security and stability and organised space. It's important that you feel fully relaxed and at home in your environment. Your space should feel comforting and cultivate happiness and peace. One way we suggest incorporating this element of self-care is to schedule time to clean up your workspace or dressing table.
Financial self-care is all about cultivating the kind of good habits that help you achieve your financial goals. Whether you want to save money, budget smarter or manage your debts, financial self-care is a way of taking control and improving a very important aspect of your life.
Career self-care includes time management, work boundaries, having time for yourself. There are so many ways to reduce the time spent working and thinking about work, which in turn should reduce your fatigue and prevent burnout. It can be helpful to set goals for your sleep, diet and exercise. Getting more sleep, eating well and exercising a few times a week can also reduce your risk of burnout and improve work-life balance.
Lastly, we want to mention that we see skincare, keeping a consistent skincare ritual is for your physical, emotional, personal and spiritual self-care all the same time. We developed our precious Timeless Elixir Facial Serum for this purpose, to nourish your skin, calm your mind and uplift your spirit.
Remember always be kind to yourself, and before long, you’ll realise that your kindness towards yourself will manifest into a kinder world.