By: Anagha S.
Welcome everyone, to another post at Ana Health Avenue! Today, as we are sitting here still in the middle of a pandemic, I want to go over why self-care is more important now more than ever.
Before we get into our 3rd blog post(I know!), I want to say thank you for taking the time to read this! Be sure to check out Ana Health Avenue’s other posts for more great information!
Now, let’s get into it.
Photo by Jared Rice on Unsplash
Table of Contents
- What is Self-Care, and why is it important?
- The Science behind Self-Care.
- Why do we need to take care of ourselves now more than ever?
- Forms of Self-Care.
- What are the benefits of Self-Care?
- Summary.
- Sources.
What is Self-Care, and why is it important?
Self-care is the practice of taking care of yourself to preserve your health and happiness. It can help to improve mental, emotional, and physical health. Often, it’s overlooked by people who feel they don’t have time to take care of themselves.
But, really, you need to take care of yourself.
The overall quality of your life significantly improves if you start taking care of yourself. Today, we are going to dive deep into the world of self-care, and why it’s important now more than ever.
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
The Science behind Self-Care
According to an article about self-care by Her Campus at USF(article linked below in Sources), we experience more psychological injuries than physical injuries. What this means is that rather than getting a bruise on your leg, your emotional psyche gets bruised a lot more.
Your emotional and mental health can be hurt through rejection, failure, insecurity, loneliness, etc.
Photo by Fernando @cferdo on Unsplash
Now, self-care is a lot more common among all generations. But, I still notice that younger generations, such as Gen Z or millennials, are more likely to perform self-care than older generations.
Just like you need to let a bruise or cut on your body heal, you need to let your emotional psyche and heart heal so you can maintain a healthy lifestyle.
And, that’s where self-care comes in.
When you take time to take care of yourself, you are subconsciously letting your psyche reaffirm the fact that you are worth it. By doing that, confidence and self-esteem can increase.
Why do We Need to Take Care of Ourselves Now More than Ever?
In my opinion, as well in the opinion of a countless number of medical professionals, you should be practicing self-care year-round.
But, on March 11, 2020, the WHO(World Health Organization) declared COVID-19 an official pandemic.
Photo by Adam Nieścioruk on Unsplash
On that day, the reality of our world changed.
Now, things arose that made us dismiss the notion of taking care of ourselves. We were too busy, there were more important things going on in the world than our skincare routine, or painting our nails.
But the truth is, you need to take care of yourself now more than ever.
The reason is that we are simply living in stressful times, and to prevent our mental health from going down the drain, self-care is a must. If you are a pro at this, keep doing what you are doing. But, if you have never practiced self-care in your life, there is no better time than now to start.
Forms of Self-Care.
Well, you’re halfway through! Thank you again, reader, for taking the time to check out this post!
When people think of self-care, they think of luxurious soaks in their bathtub complete with some fizzy bath bombs. But it varies from person to person.
Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash
For example, I love skincare. Like, my love of skincare and taking care of yourself was one of the driving factors for starting my blog. Even though I still have room to improve in the area of self-care, I generally think I have improved a lot since last year.
For me, a way to take care of myself is to use skincare products twice a day, as well as keep my nails neat and trimmed. I personally feel a lot more in control when I feel clean and fresh.
But, for someone else, taking care of themself could be taking the time to do something they love, such as play the piano, or take a refreshing walk. Self-care is a personal journey, meant to support you throughout the different phases of your life.
But, if you are confused about forms of self-care, here are some below:
You don’t have to spend oodles and oodles of money on expensive skincare to take care of yourself. Take care of yourself in the way you best see fit!
What are the Benefits of Self-Care?
We’ve already talked loosely about the benefits of self-care, but in this section, we are going to go deeper into it.
When you take the time to take care of yourself(which you should totally do because you are worth it), your self-confidence and self-esteem increases, thus your happiness and quality of mental health increases.
By practicing self-care, you are taking care of your emotional health which is so important. Also, you are less susceptible to anxiety, stress, and/or depression.
Photo by Sasha Freemind on Unsplash
Most importantly, the overall condition of your life will improve if you take the time to give yourself some very deserved self-care.
Summary.
The end! Well, not yet.
Now, I’m going to summarize all the self-love information that I’ve said above. Self-care is taking the time to preserve your mental/emotional health. You need to care for yourself so you can maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Practicing self-care helps heal the psychological and emotional wounds(rejection, insecurity, etc.) that we go through daily. We should all be doing self-care more often, but now more than ever we should be taking care of ourselves due to the stressful times we’re currently in.
There are more forms of self-care than people realize, and they include but are not limited to skincare, makeup, hobbies you enjoy, or hanging out with friends.
Lastly, the benefits of self-care are tremendous! You can significantly turn your life and mental health around for the better, and preserve your happiness.
And that’s a wrap! Thank you for taking the time to learn more about self-care(reading blog posts can also be a form of self-care)!
Just remember, you are worth taking care of. Get yourself through those tough days, and make your great days even greater with some nice facial massage at the end of the day or a nice walk after dinner.
Thank you so much for reading this post! Be sure to check out my other posts, as well as Ana Health Avenue’s social media accounts! Now go start doing some self-care! -Anagha
Sources.
*These are the websites I used to collect more information for this post…be sure to check them out!