Let’s Talk About Self Care
By Kelsey Chadwick, MS RDN
January 10th, 2024
When you think about self care you might think of taking a warm bubble bath or getting your nails done. While I’m always here for a quality spa day, self care is actually much more than that— it’s a fundamental part of our health. It’s also an integral part of intuitive eating. This is a topic that comes up pretty frequently in my sessions with folks so I wanted to share some thoughts here on our blog.
Self care is not just “pampering yourself.” It can look different for everyone and is present in many different aspects of our lives. These include psychological self care, physical self care, professional self care, emotional self care and spiritual self care. Self care can also be about letting go of things that are no longer serving you and setting boundaries.
Are there currently things in your life that are contributing to a lack of self care? This could be things like always saying ‘yes’ to new projects at work or packing the weekend with social obligations without time to rest or relax.
If we don’t strive to practice self care in each of these areas of our lives, we can find ourselves in a chronic state of stress. We can’t truly be in tune with our mind and body if we are not meeting our basic needs through self care. For folks interested in becoming confident intuitive eaters, a lack of self care can actually become a boundary to their progress. But once those self care behaviors start to fall into place, the process of connecting deeply with our mind and body becomes much easier. For example, when we’re in a state of stress it’s very difficult for us to connect with subtle hunger cues from our body—but once the stress level comes down, these cues reveal themselves and we can begin to honor them.
I encourage you to reflect on how you are currently practicing self care. You may already be practicing lots of self care and that’s great! Consistently practicing self care is key to living a lower stress life as well as providing the foundation for working on intuitive eating.
If you are working on bringing some self care back into your life, start slowly. Write out your ideal self care routine for yourself and highlight anything you are already practicing. Next, take a look at what self care practices are left. I find it helpful to write what is left in a separate list in the order they feel most doable and approachable. Start by incorporating that first self care practice on the list one to three times a week for a few weeks. Once this becomes easier and you feel consistent, try incorporating the next self care practice on the list.
Below are just a few examples of how you can incorporate self care into your life:
Psychological Self Care: managing stress, journaling, self reflection, meeting with a therapist, reading, time away from social media and screens
Physical Self Care: adequate sleep, adequate meals and snacks, staying hydrated, moving your body, spending time outside, routine medical care, stretching, yoga,
Professional: taking breaks throughout the day, spend time with coworkers, set limits on responding to emails, create a comfortable work space, take vacations, make time for lunch each day without working
Emotional Self Care: spending time with friends and family, listen to music, allow yourself to try, positive affirmations, being part of a community
Spiritual Self Care: exploring spirituality, meditate, pray, spend time in nature, reading, identifying your values, volunteering