Life can be stressful. We are always worrying and stressing out over little things, that we never give ourselves time to be happy and enjoy the beautiful things around us. Even the daily hassles, which are the small day to day interactions in our lives (shopping, traffic, chores) makes us stress out. I am a college student and stress revolves around me everyday. I am currently majoring in Social Work (even choosing my major was a headache!). Being in college for over 3 years, I came to the realization that we, the students, need to be careful in how we manage stress because we are more likely to deal with burnout. I'm sure you have heard this saying before: "You must help yourself first, in order to help others". At the SDSU School of Social Work, it is something that is repeated to us many times. And ever since I started taking classes for my major, I have heard many professors talking about self care and how it is essential for our career and well being. Being that we will be taking the role of helpers. The problem with this is that professors let us know it's important, but they don't actually teach us how to do it. Besides that, I also noticed that self care is not necessarily taught to other students majoring in non-helper roles for example, Biology or Math majors. Self care is very important and should be practiced by everyone, not just those who are planning on helping others. We should practice self care during college, so that when we go into our careers we don't become overwhelmed with our daily assignments. This blog will talk about self care and how to put it to use.
What is self care? Self care is the act of making time for yourself and relaxing your mind and body. It is important to live a healthy lifestyle and to manage our stress. We tend to stress out over deadlines, work, family, friends, bills, etc. The list is very long! But rarely do we give ourselves the time and attention we deserve. When have you stopped and taken a full deep breath, or when have you stopped to admire the world revolving. As much as we are always in a rush, we are never moving forward to our goal of obtaining HAPPINESS. Therefore, self care is a reminder that we are all human beings, sometimes we need to detach ourselves from our roles of student, parent, teacher, helper, etc. and make time for "ME". Spoil yourself because you deserve it. Self care can be an effective way to be kind to yourself and potentially relieve stress or the feeling of being overwhelmed.
So, how to know if you are good at practicing self care? First, ask yourself this question: What did I do for myself today? If you were quick to answer this question then you probably are doing good at caring for yourself, but if you had to take a moment and think about it. Then, you need to practice self care more often. Sometimes the littles things we do for ourselves can make the biggest impact on our wellbeing. It can be as small as getting a good night sleep, to a more complex form of enrolling in a yoga class. Self care helps us to cope with our daily struggles.
What is self care? Self care is the act of making time for yourself and relaxing your mind and body. It is important to live a healthy lifestyle and to manage our stress. We tend to stress out over deadlines, work, family, friends, bills, etc. The list is very long! But rarely do we give ourselves the time and attention we deserve. When have you stopped and taken a full deep breath, or when have you stopped to admire the world revolving. As much as we are always in a rush, we are never moving forward to our goal of obtaining HAPPINESS. Therefore, self care is a reminder that we are all human beings, sometimes we need to detach ourselves from our roles of student, parent, teacher, helper, etc. and make time for "ME". Spoil yourself because you deserve it. Self care can be an effective way to be kind to yourself and potentially relieve stress or the feeling of being overwhelmed.
So, how to know if you are good at practicing self care? First, ask yourself this question: What did I do for myself today? If you were quick to answer this question then you probably are doing good at caring for yourself, but if you had to take a moment and think about it. Then, you need to practice self care more often. Sometimes the littles things we do for ourselves can make the biggest impact on our wellbeing. It can be as small as getting a good night sleep, to a more complex form of enrolling in a yoga class. Self care helps us to cope with our daily struggles.
How Others Practice Self Care:
Now that you have an idea of what self care is..
If you want to learn how to do self care :
If you want to learn how to do self care :