How to Practice Self Care at Home

What is Self Care?

The National Institute of Mental Health in the US inextricably links self care with mental health. In fact, in their words: “Self care can play a role in maintaining your mental health and help support your treatment and recovery if you have a mental illness.”

Closer to home, the Black Dog Institute says self care refers to “the activities and practices that we deliberately choose to engage in on a regular basis, to maintain and enhance our health and wellbeing.” Or as Life in Mind writes, it’s an “ongoing commitment to look after yourself”, specifying “helpful behaviours that protect your health during periods of stress.”

And, it’s important to note, that across the board it’s said that there’s no one-and-done formula for self-care, that we’ll spend practising and tweaking and changing throughout our lives over time.

Why is Self Care Important?

Going from the most scientific, it turns out a “lack of activation’ in self-care is a better predictor of adverse health outcomes” than the traditional socioeconomic factors you usually hear about, like ethnicity or age. 

So, on the other hand, the benefits of self care include the fact it can help with managing stress, can lower your risk of illness, and increase your energy — Audre Lorde wasn’t lying when she called it self preservation.

It’s also said, by Black Dog Institute, that a self care plan, in particular, can help you focus, make decisions and stay healthy. Taking care of your own wellbeing can help you take care of others — like the old chestnut you hear on planes about putting on your own mask first, before assisting those around you.

What Are the Different Types of Self Care?

As we said earlier, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to self-care. What works for one, might not work for another, and it may be that you need to focus on physical self care, while a friend needs to focus on mental self care.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves — here are some of the various types of self care (but not at all an exhaustive list).

Physical Self Care

This is not just in terms of moving your body and eating well — although both these things are important. It’s about taking care of your body in a multitude of ways that enhance your physical wellbeing. 

Like through sleep (as our White Paper revealed, 56% of us don’t think we’re sleeping enough), or  through taking care of physical needs. Think, do you have an overdue doctor’s or dentist's appointment? Are you actually flossing daily? 

Emotional Self Care

Not to be confused with mental self care, another type of self care (which we’ll get to shortly, promise). Emotional self care is about engaging in activities that help you with — you guessed it! — your emotions. It’s in terms of connecting with them, processing them (in a healthy way, not just with stress), and reflecting on them. 

Think: talking to a therapist or loved one, journalling, morning mantras or affirmations.

Mental Self Care

Ok, so now we’re at mental self care. This differs from the above as it’s in terms of stimulating your brain — what (and how) you think, what you’re filling your brain with. It’s also about nurturing it and listening to it.

It could be a combination with the below, like a games night with friends. Or it could be a puzzle, sudoku, Wordle (or any of its offshoots).

Social Self Care

As we get older, it seems like everything else in life gets in the way of a *social* life — calendars book up months in advance. But as in Funny Girl, people need people; we’re social beings, who sometimes need to be social butterflies.

And relationships with loved ones — family, chosen family, friends — are important to your wellbeing, and cultivating those takes time and energy. Something like a games night, a weekly facetime call, or a monthly dinner at a new restaurant.

Practical Self Care

Not to be confused with physical self care, this p is about actions and activities you can take to fulfil core aspects of your life, to prevent future stressful situations.

Like meal-prepping to save money, planning outfits in advance to save time in the morning, spring (and every other season) cleaning your home, paying bills on time, and putting together a budget.

How Often Should I Practice Self Care?

Sometimes, life just really kicks you in the shins (and then some), and an entire self care day is necessary. Other times, you may have realised it’s been a long time since you’ve partaken in any self care whatsoever, and so you get back in touch with yourself through something like a self care at-home spa. 

But as it turns out, it doesn’t have to — and shouldn’t — get to the point where you’ve let self care fall so the side it’s beyond sporadic. As mental health professionals say, “even small acts of self care in your daily life can have a big impact.” 

Life in Mind says although there’s no specific time frame of frequency for practising self care, it’s important to try and practice it every day.

How to do Self Care From Home

But how do you even incorporate self care into your daily routine? Well, that’s where self care at home ideas come in. Because, as it turns out, home is the “primary place” for not only self care but also meditation and healing practices, according to trend forecasting company, WGSN.

Here are just some activities that solve the query of how to do self care from home — some you already incidentally take part in, but can improve, some that you can start doing monthly, fortnightly, weekly, daily until it becomes second nature.