Practicing Self-Care with Help from a Relationship Coach

Daftein’s coach explains why practicing self-care is crucial to a fulfilling life and how learning to love one’s self more is easier with the help of a coach.

Self-care, Self Love, Life Coach, Coaching

Self-care is an umbrella term for any and all activities a person does to maintain, restore, or improve their emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual health and wellbeing. It’s a lot for a single term to try to encompass, and even more difficult for a single busy person to try and keep track of—it might even be tempting to put this “chore” on the back-burner in the meantime while you attend to more pressing matters. After all, it’s not hurting anyone to neglect it for a little bit, right?

You might be surprised at how crucial practicing self-care is to how we function as people. Self-care as a whole is essential for managing your stress levels and preventing that sneaky monster lurking around every corner for hardworking individuals: burnout.

Who Needs Self-Care and How Can They Love Themselves More?

The short answer is: Everyone. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what gender you identify as, what your occupation is, and what sort of lifestyle you live—everyone has a right to experience self-love and take holistic care of their wellbeing. Whether you’re working parents in need of a little me time away from your kids and demanding jobs, c-suite executives dealing with long hours and stress, or academics who need to get out of their heads for a while and decompress, you’ll find that practicing self-care regularly has a lot of benefits:

Working parents with children. Once you become a parent, your life can’t just revolve around you. You have little ones depending on you now, so your priorities and focus will understandably shift. You’ll be preoccupied with raising your children and working to provide a good life for them. But being a good parent doesn’t mean you must neglect yourself. It’s also your responsibility—to yourself and to your children who look up to you—to care proper care of yourself.

So, it’s recommended that you set healthy boundaries between you, your job, and family time. Take the time to rest, recharge, and reconnect with your personal hobbies and your interests outside of the ones you enjoy with your family. As a parent, you might feel guilty for taking a break. You might think it’s selfish of you to take time for yourself. But, remember: you won’t be able to be the parent your children deserve when you’re wrung out and tired. Taking care of yourself allows you to be a better parent and productive employee in the long run!

C-Suite Executives and Managers. As the prime decision makers and organisers in a company, it’s on you to make sure that the interests of several parties—the company, your employees, and your shareholders—are taken care of. To juggle all that, you might have to work long hours and on the weekends and find yourself in high-pressure and stressful situations often, all while overseeing the high-level running of a business.

It’s a lot to ask for in an individual, not to mention mentally and physically taxing to demand it of yourself every day. Taking some time out of your hectic schedule to practice a little self-care gives you the space to clear your head and take a breather. Doing so works wonders on your ability to focus and, crucially, reduces your chances of burning out.

Students, Professors, and those in Academia. The business of knowledge—both seeking and imparting—is fraught with many stressors. From financial demands to deadlines to the need for tangible, successful results, it’s all too easy to spiral into a state of anxiety and burnout. You can manage the stress that comes along with the territory with regular self-care activities like taking some time to meditate or walk around campus, preferably somewhere with a good view of nature and some fresh air.

Remembering to take the occasional step away from the projects and research papers would do a world of difference for anxiety and burnout. This’ll lead to an improvement in your ability to focus and concentrate, not to mention help with the quality of sleep you get at night and the energy you have to take on the day afterwards.

Artists, Athletes, and Craftspeople. People who excel in athletics or a form of art or craft don’t just get there resting on the laurels of their talent. They are often driven by their passion: to create, to express, to innovate, to be outstanding, to be the best. And while this focus is laudable, it doesn’t come free of charge. Your unrelenting pursuit of new heights in your craft or physical abilities can lead to burnout and cause you to hit a wall in your journey.

Athletes, artists, and artisans would greatly benefit from a regular self-care routine to refresh their minds and give their bodies a chance to recover from often grueling training regimens. Taking a little personal time away from your projects and programs means discovering new sources of inspiration, replenishing creative juices, and restoring mental fortitude to pursue your passions.

Caregivers and Medical Professionals. Our society is lucky to have compassionate, empathic, and hardworking individuals working in the medical and caregiving fields. However, who makes sure that the people who take care of us also takes care of themselves? Caregivers and other medical professionals so often get carried away by their work ethic that they might ignore their own needs.

If you’re in these highly demanding fields, always be sure that you rest and relax regularly, when you can, both physically and mentally, so you can offer the best experience you can give to the people in your care.

What’s Next for You in Your Self-Care Journey?

You might identify with one or more of the situations above, or perhaps your day-to-day stresses are more unique to your situation. Either way, looking out for your emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual health is tantamount. So, ask yourself this: What am I doing to care for and love myself?

Getting Started on Your Journey to Better Self Care

The first step in your journey towards appreciating and taking better care of yourself is performing a simple wellness check. Ask yourself these questions and answer as truthfully as you can. The results can reveal much about your current mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual state. Use them to inform and direct your self-care practice.

What would your ideal self-care routine look like? What would it include and how often would you do it? Now, think about the best thing you are doing to show care and self-love at the moment. Does your reality measure up to your ideal?

Which areas or activities of your life brings you the most stress and the most joy? What can be done to minimise or prevent the former and make sure you have more of the latter?

Which of your behaviours or thought patterns do you think are the most damaging and unhealthy to yourself? How can you switch your mindset to let go or better cope with the obstacles that keep you from practicing self-care regularly and growing into the best version of yourself?

How are you faring with organisation and time-management? Do you find it easy to carry out tasks and responsibilities or do you find even just prioritising your chores to be a trial? What is currently the most important thing to you?

How often do you spend time appreciating the outdoors, nature, or the peace of your own mind? How often do you reflect on your attitudes, reactions, and behaviours?

Describe your sleeping patterns—are they disturbed and lack structure, restful and energising, or are they efficient and practical? What do you first think about upon waking up? Are you more often in a positive mood or do several thoughts vie for your attention as soon as you come to wakefulness?

These are just some basic questions to ask yourself in order to learn which part of your life is in most need of self-care (if not all of it!). And asking all these questions, asking the right questions, may be a daunting task for the inexperienced at self-care. It might even seem insurmountable when you factor in having to commit to changing old habits and patterns into healthier ones.

If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the task ahead, you can turn to a trusted relationship coach from Daftein. They can help you develop a better relationship with yourself by asking revealing questions and holding you accountable to the changes you’ve set out to instill in yourself. Moreover, they can act as an objective support system for your journey as well as offer insights and advice when you feel low or stuck.

Identify Your Self-Care Priorities and Goals

We all have the right to self-care. But our self-care needs are not always the same; what we need to rest and recover and restore our emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical wellbeing differs from person to person. If you are looking for somebody trustworthy and experienced to support you and hold you accountable to your desire to make positive self-care changes, then talk to our relationship coach.

We can help you overcome self-made barriers keeping you from sticking to a self-care routine and cultivate healthy habits that ultimately lead you to good health, wellness, and a life that’s transformed for the better.