Why You Should Always Prioritize Self-Care
Some days can tend to be harder than others. Especially with everything that is going on in the world today everyone needs to take care of their mental health. If you are feeling stressed or pressured by what’s going on then I recommend taking a self-care day. A self-care day is the best way to ensure that your mental state is at the top of its game. These are some reasons why a self-care day is important and how you can get the most out of the day.
Mental Health
The number one reason to have a self-care day is that you have to take care of your mental health and mental stability. Your mind is a fragile part of you that holds so many emotions and feelings that sometimes it gets harder to bottle up the things that bother you. A self-care day is going to help you adjust to all those feelings you don’t understand. To take care of your mental health on a self-care day why not try to find a quiet place where you live and just relax your mind in silence. If you’re like me and sometimes silence doesn’t work for you I like to put my headphones on and listen to my favorite music to calm down. It helps keep myself entertained while also keeping my head calm.
Physical Health
Just as much as self-care takes care of your mental health it also takes care of your physical health. When your mind is happy your body reacts to it. When you’re sad you’ll probably notice that your body acts the same way. It will feel heavy, you might eat more or even eat less. This leads to fluctuations in weight which is not healthy. There is a simple way to take care of this. If you have a problem with overeating when you’re sad then keep healthy snacks around your house so that when you need to eat you’ll only be eating healthy. If you’re the opposite and find yourself not eating when you’re sad then try and have snacks or food that you know you always like. That way if you think you should be eating you’ll have something ready to eat when you want to. Also always keep a water bottle with you, it’s important to stay hydrated always.
Anxiety
A self-care day always helps a lot with any anxiety you might be having. Stress tends to trigger anxiety and it gets difficult to do anything when you’re in that mental state of anxiety. Whatever is making you stressed out you need to stop and take a moment to breathe. Deep breaths always help especially when your chest feels tight and you think you can’t breathe. Try and separate yourself from whatever is making you anxious just for a moment so it’s out of sight and mind. Drink some water, maybe put on your favorite show or movie, and just try and think about something that makes you happy or calms you down. Personally, I find it helps to call someone I trust and talk about my feelings. Sometimes it’s also really good just to cry it out. Crying is a really healthy reaction to this kind of feeling and can ultimately lead to you feeling relieved from letting your emotions out.
Stress
Stress leads to a lot of problems within the mind and body. It can make you irritable, angry, sad, jumpy, and agitated. A lot of the time we can’t help being in stressful situations because it can be caused by work or home life and that’s sometimes unavoidable. The best way to deal with stress is definitely by taking a self-care day. Take a day off and try to find things you enjoy doing to get your mind off whatever is bothering you. Try to be on your own because that will help you find out whatever is bothering you and other people around you might irritate you even more. An example of something that could calm down stress would maybe be baking or be painting. Just something creative and productive to help keep your mind at peace.
Relaxation
It’s so important to have a self-care day just to ultimately be relaxed. When you are physically and mentally relaxed it will put your mind at total ease. Relaxing is one of the ultimate ways to relieve any kind of stress or mental stressors. Everyone deserves a relaxing day off. The best way to achieve this relaxation is by taking a hot shower or a hot bubble bath. The warm water is going to help calm you down in order to relax. Get a nice cup of tea and lay down in bed. If you don’t want to sleep just simply lay with your eyes clothes and listen to something that will relax you like a soothing podcast, ASMR video, or your favorite band. You’re going to feel so at ease and will be totally relaxed and refreshed for a new day.
You Deserve A Break
Sometimes your mental demons like to fight you and tell you that you need to keep working in order to achieve anything in life. It’s true you do need to work to succeed but there is no way you can succeed without taking a moment to just breathe. If you overwork yourself it’s just going to make relaxing even harder because your mind will wander to everything you need to do. No matter what your brain tells you, you deserve a break. Even if it’s just five minutes in the bathroom to breathe, it takes five minutes. We need to normalize mental health days in the workforce because it’s become more and more prevalent that poor mental health is becoming a major issue that needs to be resolved. Taking care of your mental health should be one of the important things you do for yourself. It’s so important to take care of our minds just as we should be taking care of our bodies. Because a healthy mind leads to a healthy life. So take that day off to read the book you’ve been meaning to read or go see the movie you’ve been excited to watch. You deserve to take a self-care day.
Which of these do you find most important to do on a self-care day? Let us know in the comments! Make sure to share with your friend and family so they know how and why they should be taking a self-care day.
