Importance of Self-Care

Current Life SituationEach one of us have a few roles to play in our life, from a child, parent, to team member or team leader at work, spouse and friend. The advent of technology has blurred time and space, work seems to be endless, as everyone around the world is connected 24/7. This increases obligations and tasks from the various roles that we juggle, without a corresponding increase in time, time stays constant. As a result, we to sacrifice our own time, in order to fulfil these increased obligations and complete these tasks, without realising that we are heading towards self-destruction as each day passes by.

Consequences of Not Having Self Care
Why are we heading towards self-destruction by putting our self care on the backburner? We are merely not carving out time for ourselves. We are still socially active, interacting with our loved ones, friends and co-workers. We should be having a sense of fulfilment by accomplishing our tasks and answering to our obligations.

The one critical reason why this type of life is a recipe for disaster for self destruction is because in time to come, we will be uninspired and lost our motivation and passion to live. By letting life happen to us through the needs and wants of others, our daily life will just be run on auto-pilot. By busy attending to other people’s needs and wants, we have unknowingly mould ourselves to different personalities in different situations, to fit into other people’s expectations of us. This results in us forgetting our true self, and the reason for our existence. With our needs and wants neglected, we will become resentful, irritable and resentful. Negativity creeps in and our self-esteem will be affected too. In time to come, we will be going to a downward spiral of depression .

Types of self-care
With such dire consequences, it is time for us to take back the driver seat of our life and practice self-care now.
There are six types of self-care: emotional, physical, social, practical, mental, and spiritual. Three types of self-care are elaborated in this article – emotional, physical and social.

Emotional self-care is taking care of our emotions, being aware of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. We know what makes us happy and what makes us unhappy and stressed up. We surround ourselves with happy activities and people, we take a step back if some incident or person makes us unhappy and stressed. Practicing sufficient emotional selfcare results in cultivating healthy relationships and better stress management .

Physical self-care means undertaking activities that improve our physical health. This includes having a well-balanced diet , getting sufficient sleep and going to the doctor when we are sick. Having physical self-care means that we ensure that your body is healthy enough to enable us to live the life we want. Do not forget, our body is the only house that we live in till we die.

Humans are social creatures, no one can live alone, without any interaction. Social self care means enjoying the company of people we adore and take into account of our emotional needs. It includes handling conflicts well. Have social self care ensures that we have a work life balance.

Conclusion
Hence, self-care, which includes setting healthy boundaries and put our needs in top priority is important for us to start living, have a work life balance, manage stress management and work towards better physical, mental and emotional well-being.