A lot of people ask, “What is self-care? How does one use self-care to better themselves?” According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “self-care is the ability of individuals, families and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”
Self-care is a broad concept that includes hygiene practices, proper nutrition, self-advocacy for a healthy lifestyle, mental and physical health practices and awareness of environmental factors, such as living conditions and deterrence from unhealthy habits.
WHO claims that there are many core principles of self-care that impact the individual directly as well as their local community. This includes empowerment, bodily autonomy, personal responsibility and community participation to mention a few. While this may seem like a lot, people tend to focus on hygiene, mental wellbeing and healthy eating when it comes to implementing self-care strategies and methods.
There are many techniques and practices for improving your health overall, but not every practice will help everyone. It is more of a trial and error practice. Everyone has self-care techniques that help them the best. It may take some time to find what techniques and practices best help you but when you do find them, you’ll definitely find a positive change in your health.
According to a 2018 article published in Psychology Today, participating in self-care techniques like learning how to eat right for your body, stress reducers, proper exercise and time for reflection and proper rest can help individuals stay healthy, content and resilient.
One technique that helps many people is including sleep as part of their self-help routine. Sleep is our brain’s reset button; we get most of your energy for our day during REM sleep, which is, essentially, deep sleep. So when preparing for bed, you want to be able to get the best REM sleep as possible, which can help stabilize your mood and stress over time. Other possible techniques include focusing on digestive health, organizing and eliminating potential unnecessary stressors in your routine, taking breaks when feeling overwhelmed and learning as well as setting limitations or boundaries when it comes to work or other social expectations.
Extra stressors brought on from the COVID-19 pandemic such as social isolation, anxieties and overall stress has highlighted a need for a focus on self-care and self-care routines for some people.
On Aug. 20, 2020, the NSU College of Psychology recorded a “Shark Chat” with Shannon Karl, professor within the department of counseling at NSU, which could be accessed at this link. This discussion focused on self-care during stressful times. In this discussion, Karl emphasized resources students can access, potential methods of destressing and practices of self-care to consider during the unprecedented times of the pandemic.
For students with a vested interest in approaching or improving upon their self-care routine, students are encouraged to reach out to The NSU Center for Student Counseling Services and Well Being (CSCW) for professional advice, resources and psychoeducational groups and program opportunities.
