I have noticed that in today’s day and age, many people think of self-care as going on a Netflix binge, going out to the bars to get drunk, taking a long nap, and etc. Sometimes we do not realize that the things we think we are doing for ourselves are actually hurting us. This week for my ILP, I will be researching the different types of self-care that there are. I will also be looking into how they can help us in our daily lives.
When I first started researching the different types of self-care I was not thinking about how there were different categories of self-care. I was just going to do this research over different things that you could do to include a little self-care in your life. Now that I have looked into it a little more, I want to discuss the 6 categories of self-care as well. The 6 categories include emotional, social, physical, practical, mental, and spiritual self-care.
Before I start explaining what all of these different types of self-care are, I want to say that I think all of these categories are very important. Some of us might find a couple of them more important than others, and that is okay. Everyone is different, and therefore, we all enjoy/need different forms of self-care more or less than another person.
To begin, emotional self-care is when you do activities that help you deal with your emotions on a better level. By working on your emotional self-care you will become more secure with yourself. Social self-care has a lot to do with the relationships in your life. There are many activities that you can do to deepen and nurture your relationships. By doing this, you will feel more confident with the people that you have in your life and it will make you feel more complete as a whole. Physical self-care is kind of obvious. If you participate in activities that help your physical health, you will maintain a form of self-care. This kind of self-care also tends to give you more energy throughout the day. Practical self-care was not something that I was aware of in the beginning. Practical self-care is when you take part in activities that will make your future life less stressful. Something that I like to do for practical self-care is organize. Mental self-care is when you do activities that stimulate your mind. I think most of us do this on a daily basis. Your stress is often lessened from doing mental self-care activities. Last but not least, Spiritual self-care is when you give yourself an opportunity to think bigger than yourself. This kind of self care does not have to be religious, however, that is often how a lot of people practice it.
I have always found TED talks to be very helpful. I like this one because it is short and it explains self-care in a very good way. We need to remember to do things for ourselves that will make us feel better long-term. Sometimes we might think that we are doing things for ourselves that will make us feel better and sometimes we are. But most times a lot of the things we do only last temporarily. After researching and putting more work into this project, I have decided that I want to begin practicing and placing some more self-care into my life.
Digital Literacy with Shayla D. 