Self Care: The Ultimate Guide On How To Take Care of Yourself and Improve Your Quality of Life

Why is self care so important, and how to take care of yourself? This page is dedicated to answering this question. 

Undeniably, we all know that self care is one of those things that’s needed, but don’t do. Or it’s something that we think is having a spa day or taking a week vacation to escape our busy work schedule.

I’m here to say that you’re doing it all wrong and that self care is in fact much more than just that. In fact, it’s needed for you to perform well and improve your quality of life.

My Personal Story

Why am I so certain? Because not long ago, I was so focused on success and reaching personal and career goals that I neglected taking care of myself.

My aim is to provide you with the ultimate self care guide. Because there just wasn’t one out there for me. I had to learn everything on my own. 

Not long ago this was who I was:

• Binge watch TV shows on he who shall not be named
• Stress over small things I had no control over
• Alienate and ruin relationships due to my own insecurities
• Zooming past life with no direction
• Felt like I had not enough time in the day

With any type of success if you are not healthy — mentally, emotionally, and physically — then its is all for nothing.

To understand the importance of self care, we first have to understand what exactly it is. 

What is self care?

Self care is taking care of your mental, emotional, and physical needs. When we are so busy throughout the day, we tend to forget to take care of our vehicle to success, our body and our mind. 

I think of self care like maintenance for your car. When your car is dirty, needs an oil change, or needs new tires, you go to the mechanic. 

The same idea applies for your body or your mind. If you are feeling sluggish you need to get better sleep. If you have have health issues, you may want to eat better foods. And if you dealing with emotions or mental health issues, you go to a therapist.

By taking care of our vehicle for success, we not only increase performance, but we also improve our quality of life.

Benefits of Self Care

I have found that making much needed time away from the work, actually leaves us more productive in the long run. By taking care of our needs we slowly but surely lead a better more well rounded life.

Some simple, but major benefits of self care are:

• Higher performance
• Mental well-being
• Staying grounded
• Better relationships
• Healthier lifestyle

All of these benefits clearly improve your quality of life. It’s about feeling, being, and doing good. Simple principle, harder to do. But, it doesn’t have to be.

Self Care Routines That Increase Performance

Contrary to popular belief it’s not cool to always be “busy”. Question you might want to start asking yourself is are you being busy or effective.

Are you performing at your best or are you just filling up time, waiting to clock out, hit the commute back home, feeling unsatisfied?

These are just a few things that you can add into your routine to increase your performance at work and in your personal life. 

• Learn something new and fun
• Stretch, invest in a foam roller (this is the one I use)
• Take time off, unwind and let your creative side out
• Plan ahead
• Good night’s sleep. Make sure to read my post, How to Get a Good Night’s Sleep if you want to take full advantage of the benefits.

Self Care Routines That Increase Mental Energy

We can only make so many good decisions in one day. We all have our limits. Saying yes all the time, leaves us drained. Watching the evening news makes cynics of us all.

To combat these negatives, here are a few ways to increase your mental energy:

• Practicing gratitude. In my article, How to Be More Grateful, I’ll give you 5 simple tricks on practicing gratitude and leave you feeling happier.
• Meditation
• Saying No
• Journaling
• Practicing minimalism. In this article, I go over things that minimalism can provide you that you’re just not getting out of the ways you’ve been doing things. Minimalism is about taking control of your life.
• Spending time with family
• Do a digital detox

I go more in depth on ways to practice mindfulness, reduce anxiety and stress in this article here.