Practicing self -care is an amazing way to take care of your physical and mental health. As an adult, parent, employer/employee, setting time out for yourself is very important.
In the hustle and bustle of daily life, you can get stressed and tired. This is why it is very important that you take time to care for yourself and relax.
In this article, you will learn 10 self-care practices to help you unwind and relax from your busy schedule and daily life.
5 Major Benefits of Self-Care
Self-care practices are things that we do to help us feel happy mentally and physically. It is the intentional act of taking care of ourselves.
There are a lot of benefits to self-care and some of them are:
1. Self-care helps you to refresh and constantly stay energized.
Constantly working without timeouts is a recipe for burnout and breakdown. But when you practice regular self -care, you stay physically and mentally refreshed.
- It improves your mood.
Regular self-care is a good way to improve your mood and feel happy. Whether you choose to visit a therapist or attend a yoga session, you always leave with a sense of peace and relief, leaving you in a good mood.
3. It increases your productivity.
Either at work or in school, self-care helps you to do better and faster. After self-care, your mind is refreshed and energized which helps you to stay more focused and be more productive.
- Self-care helps you reduce stress and anxiety.
Pressure from work, school or our personal life can sometimes get too much for us to handle. It can leave us stressed and constantly worried. Practicing self-care will help us destress and reduce our anxieties.
- It helps you develop and maintain better relationships.
When you do not take time for self-care, your relationships are also affected. It can be emotionally draining for other people around you who have to cope with your mood swings and unhappiness. Therefore, regular self-care would put you in a good mood and leave you relaxed.
ALSO READ: Therapy for Nigerians: 7 ways therapy can change your life and where you can access it
10 Self-Care Practices to Help You Relax and Unwind
There are a lot of self-care practices we can do to relax and unwind from a stressful week or schedule. Some of them include:
- Spend time outdoors: Constantly staying indoors is not good for your mental and social wellbeing. You need to connect with others no matter how busy you are.
You can decide to make time in the weekends to hang out with friends, attend social events, or even go for a simple walk.
- Take regular screen breaks: We are in the era where nearly everything we do is done online. Constantly staring at our phones, laptops, etc., can be very draining on our physical health and mental health.
This is why it is very important that we take regular breaks and connect with people face-to-face.
- Exercise regularly: Exercising regularly will help you take care of your mental health and physical health.
For persons who are constantly at their desk, exercise is a good self-care practice to help them unwind and relax. You can go for a run, join a gym, take a walk etc.
- Pursue new hobbies and interests: As mentioned earlier, self-care is an intentional act to take care of your physical and mental health. Taking up new hobbies would help you forget about your worries at work or school and leave you feeling relaxed.
- Therapy : Regular therapy sessions is very good for your mental health. Through therapy, you can talk about things that are burdening you and learn better ways to cope with them. In short, therapy sessions leave you feeling less burdened and more relieved.
- Better sleep: An healthy sleep routine is an underrated but important self-care practice. Having regular sleep daily boosts your mood and reduces your stress levels
7-8 hours is a good sleep time to aim for. If you can’t do this during the week, then consider it during the weekends.
- Journaling: This is one of the major ways to practice self -care. Taking time from your busy schedule to relax and put down your thoughts, feelings, does so much for your health especially your mental health.
You get to reflect, analyze your feelings and find closure. So, get a journal now and start writing.
- Meditation: This is a practice where you try to focus and direct your thoughts to rid your mind of negative emotions and achieve a state of calm and clarity. It is a major self-care practice which can help you relax and unwind from a stressful schedule or routine.
- Yoga: This involves a series of physical activities, stretching, meditation, breathing techniques, etc., which can help your body build strength. It is a major activity that can help you relax and unwind from the stress of daily life.
- Read regularly: Reading interesting books like self-help books, fictions etc., is also a good self-care practice. When you read, you forget about your troubles or worries and get entertained or inspired.
To help you build a reading habit, you can join our mental community where we read and review amazing books for your mental health.
Come, Relax and Unwind with Us
Mycarebuddy in collaboration with The Happiness Center will be hosting an evening of relaxation where self-care practices like professional therapy, meditation, yoga session etc., will be held.
It will hold on 5th October 2024 between the hours of 4pm-6pm at the Happiness Center, 320 Akin Ogun ewe street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
Register here and Join us for an Evening of Relaxation and Self-Care.
Conclusion
Self -care is no longer a luxury but a must. To reduce burnout, stress and even take care of others, you must prioritize your own self-care. After all, you can’t give what you do not have.
As a parent, employee, employee, adult, teenager, you must learn to practice regular self-care to stay constantly relaxed and energized.