Self Care Habits For Taking Care Of Yourself
In honour of NHS Self Care Week (running from the 14th to 20th November 2016), we wanted to share some tips and advice for taking care of yourself.
For a lot of people, life is incredibly chaotic, which leaves little time for taking care of themselves. Thanks to technology playing a bigger role in our lives than ever before, it can be hard to get the time out to relax and unwind that you need. Our phones constantly update us with messages, emails, and alerts, making it incredibly difficult to leave your work at the office. Studies have shown that out of every 100,000 workers, 1510 suffer from work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
How can we improve our health?
The good news is that by making self care part of your life, and making an effort to take better care of ourselves, we can improve our health. The best methods of doing that, according to NHS Self Care Week are as follows:
Learn to balance your work and home life
As mentioned above, thanks to technology, it’s harder than ever to draw a line between your work life and personal life. However, it’s important that you do so. As otherwise, your health may end up suffering as a result.
When you’ve completed your daily working hours, that should be it for the day. No more work or work worries, your free time is time to relax and unwind. No matter how chaotic your work life is, you shouldn’t be focusing on it when you’re at home. To make this an easier rule to stick to, don’t add your work email to your personal phone, so that you’re not tempted to check it when you’re at home.
Take self care breaks while at work
While you’re at work, make sure to take breaks throughout the day. The law states that for every six hours you work, you have the right to one uninterrupted 20-minute break. Take advantage of this time to practice self-care.
Go for a short walk and get some fresh air. Sit down with a co-worker and have a cup of tea and a chat. Get your book out and spend some time reading. It doesn’t matter what you choose to do, just as long as you use your rest break for what it’s intended - resting.
Create healthy spaces
If you’re taking self-care seriously, you need to take some time to focus on the spaces you spend most of your time in - your home and work environments. Believe it or not, the state of an environment you spend a lot of time in, can have a big impact on your mood and mental health. So, it’s important to create healthy spaces.
What’s a healthy space? A healthy space is somewhere that makes you feel good to spend time in. Take your office at work as an example, it should be somewhere that’s kept neat and tidy, is free from clutter, has fresh air running through it, and has a nice feel to it. Adding things like a pot plant and some personal touches, like photos of friends or family, can help to make your office a nicer place to be.
Take care of your health
When life gets busy, we tend to put off taking care of our health. However, it’s important to put your health first. If you’re worried about something, make a doctor’s appointment and get it checked out, or head to see your pharmacist for a chat. If you’ve got an overdue medical checkup to go for, don’t put it off, go and get it done. You’ll feel better for it.
Plus, by making your health a priority, you can ensure that if there is a problem, it’s caught early, and so, should be easier to treat. Don’t make the mistake of putting your career before your health, always put your health first.
