Category: self-care

Self-Care to me is being both physically and mentally healthy, nothing more and nothing less. Despite how much we as a class have read on it, I still see no other answer. While there may be answers which in some cases may not seem wrong, I just don’t think those answers are necessary unless they give mental and physical health.
To be more specific, when I say physical health, I mean staying away from things that harm your body and that risk causing illnesses and pain along with maintaining a healthy diet. Now when I say mental health I mean doing things that give happiness and satisfaction. With the combination of these two you get someone who always feels great.
I understand that this answer may seem very general but the reason for this is the amount of things that can lead a person to this physical and mental state. Some people may say self-help includes exercise, while others say it’s eating right and another might say it’s simply just not ever getting sick. These all fall under the category of being physically healthy so these are all correct and there is no wrong answer. Same goes for mental state. Meditating, reading, learning, or just relaxing are all things to help the mind, but then again, just because one works doesn’t mean it’s universal. What I mean by this is someone may not find exercising to be as easy or meditating to be as relaxing, so in a way, they are not necessarily correct answers. This is why I used a general response, because the more specific ones aren’t always right.
This weekend I practiced self-help a little more than I always do beginning with physical health. I told myself I would practice physical health in two ways, exercise and eating. Now I’ve stopped exercising for a while and this self-help gave me the motivation to get to it. Every day except Saturday (because it was freezing) I went across the street to a park and ran for as long as I could. Sadly 4 minutes was the longest I could run for, but I started off at 2 so that’s improvement to me. And on Friday and Monday I did push ups before I went to sleep, it wasn’t much but I haven’t exercised in a while and it showed. All I did to eat right was not order takeout which I have a bad habit of doing and I just made the food I had at home.
To practice mental health I told myself I would remember to do all my “To/do list things” which I have a bad habit of forgetting. This includes things like house chores, homework etc. This way, I could relax knowing I’ve done everything I need to do. Believe it or not it felt nice to be able to tell myself I’m not forgetting to do something and it makes relaxing…well, more relaxing.

What is self-care? As stated by Wikipedia, “In health care, self-care is any necessary human regulatory function which is under individual control, deliberate and self-initiated. Self-care is seen as a partial solution to the global rise in health care costs placed on governments. Self-care is considered to be a fundamental pillar of health and social care and is an essential component of a modern health care systems governed by regulations and statutes. Self-care is considered a primary form of care for patients with self-managed chronic illness. Self-care is a continuous learning process. In philosophy, self-care refers to the care and cultivation of self in a comprehensive sense, focusing in particular on the soul and the knowledge of self.”

I totally agree with this statement and how important it is to do self-care. I personally have been trying to do more self-care on a daily, but I have been struggling. Life is hard as it is with responsibilities of school, work, and home. Sometimes I feel like I do not have enough time in the day or night to do self-care. But as each day goes by, I try my best to do little by little and stay positive. Self-care consists of many things, and I want to state some things of what I have been personally trying my best to do on a daily basis.

At my job, I am constantly washing and sanitizing my hands, because I work at JFK international airport with passengers from international and domestic flights coming in. When I reach home at nights, I try to do some assignments for school before getting some sleep for the next day of class and work. Recently, every morning and night while I take a shower, I use a face wash called Clearasil to help cleanse and fight my acne. I hope using this face wash can help or prevent them from coming out. After washing my face, I use witch hazel and an all-natural glow facial serum. It fights against acne, dark spots, promotes wound healing, combats signs of skin aging, and treats dry skin including eczema. It consists of sweet almond oil, rosehip seed oil, neem oil, grape seed oil, jojoba oil, and organic rose buds. I also have a 64 oz water bottle that I carry around the house and to work, to help stay motivated in drinking more water each day. Then there is my membership with planet fitness, and I watch a little tv or movies sometimes to take my mind off of reality.

Self-care to me is being able to just do things for yourself (benefitting to you) and doing any activity that will bring you more happiness. I think there are many ways to describe what self-care is but everyone generally understands it to be taking care of yourself in some way. This past weekend I made sure to do as many upcoming assignments as I could, and was able to get a majority of them done by Saturday afternoon. I used the rest of that afternoon and Sunday doing things that made me happy and I also made time for my family.

On Saturday I had woken up around 10am, got ready, had my usual cup of coffee, and started doing homework. After finishing my homework, I decided to have a wash day and also did my laundry. On Sunday I woke up around 11am, got ready, had my coffee, and watched reruns of my favorite sitcom throughout the day. Later that night me and my family combined our “game  night” and “movie night”. We decided to play a long, and stressful round of Monopoly and ordered pizza to watch Invisible Man afterwards. My Monday was pretty relaxed because the only assignment I had left to do was for this class, and my only class for the day is at 4pm.

Self care to me means subtracting yourself from the world itself. Taking time to rejuvenate yourself not only your physical being but your mental self being as well.
For those who follow basketball or do not, Kyrie Irving is a point guard for the Brooklyn Nets. A few months back he took off a few games to get his mental health back on track. Just because you are here physically, do not mean you are here mentally.
Just this past weekend was the 2021 NBA all star game. Lebron James who is a forward for the Los Angeles Lakers made a comment about him being physically there but mentally, he was not. Being ready for anything physically does not mean anything if you are not mentally there.
You always need time to sit back reflect on yourself and recharge. Thats probably one of the best things you can do for yourself.
Some of the things I have done aside from relax watching All star weekend, I did some meditation. It was my first time doing it in a while but I figured since this weekend was a time for self care, I gave it a shot and honestly I will be doing it more frequently because it did more than I thought it would.

To me self care is taking time out of your day whether it be 5 min or 5 hours and just doing something for your mind, body and soul. Self-care encourages you to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself so that you can transmit the good feelings to others. You cannot give to others what you don’t have yourself. I personally love self care days they make me feel refreshed like a whole new person. My routine for self care usually starts off with making sure whatever environment im in is clean. Once I make sure everything is clean, I like to do a face mask and then pick a movie or show to watch. I also like to reflect within myself and meditate. I usually like to eat some sort of fruit preferably pineapple or pomegranate they are so refreshing. I like to end my nights early, I write down my plans for the next day and then I call it a night.

    This would be the first time I think of self-care as a focal point. Things done for myself in the absence of guidance I’ve never actually categorized as self-care ,but have always thought about them as routine; requirements in order for me to be my best self. These actions or lack there of on some days allow me to reset my mind and refocus my energy on areas of my life I need to and aid in achieving my short term as well as my long term goals. Most weeks my Saturdays and part of my Sunday mornings are dedicated to just that.

  Saturdays usually involve my part of self-care that is accomplished alone for the most part. I wake up around 2-3am and start off my day with controlled breathing while watching my favorite meditation aids from youtube. I believe my two kittens, Bentley and NiKlaus ,love this time as well.  Skyrim – Music & Ambience – Night – YouTube  would be one of my go to videos I use for waking and prior to going to sleep. After my morning youtube session I take time out to stretch and have a walk. Then write in my journal before and after . My self activity is decided during the week and always changing whether it’s an art gallery, different museum, the zoo, really any outing that will get me out of the house ,but yet enjoy my own company while doing so. When Saturday is drawing to a close I do order out as that is my only cheat day from my diet . 

    Sunday is rather shorter with the same morning ritual, but the daily activity I choose to have a friend accompany me or just have a coffee at the house while engaging with one or more close friends. Since I’ve adopted Niklaus and Bentley I try to keep my social gatherings to a minimum not to disrupt their time with me as I find them just as much of my self-care as any other part.    

What is self-care? Well self-care to me is doing anything that will put me in a relaxed, happy state. As a kid, I saw my mother taking care of herself by doing vanity things such as doing her nails done or giving herself facials. So I saw that as self-care. But a past experience I had a few years ago taught me that self-care was so much more than vanity practices. It goes so much deeper and definitely starts with taking care of your mind. Doing things that make you happy from within, things that don’t feel forced. So though I may pamper myself by putting on a mask, or painting my nails here and there, when I’m feeling in need of some extra care that is not where I start. So over the weekend, some self-care-related things I did were put on my current favorite show (Law and Order SVU), make a hot cup of tea, and simply sat there and enjoyed binging some episodes. Another thing I did was restart one of my favorite book series from when I was in middle school, it takes me back to a simpler time and helps ease any stress I’m feeling so I been enjoying doing that.