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Self-Care for Mental Health: Creating An Effective, Balanced Self-Care Plan

Let’s talk about self-care for mental health. Throughout life you have probably been told how important it is that we all look after ourselves to improve our physical health; for example, your parents may have told you about the importance of eating your veggies as a child or maybe the doctor discussed how important exercise is for your heart.

Looking after yourself is not just important for your physical health, but it is also extremely important for your mental health care, and it looks very similar to caring for your physical health.

Taking care of your mental health matters just as much as looking after your physical health. At Rebound Total Health, we can help guide you to create a self-care plan that recognizes the importance of maintaining good physical and mental health.

What is Self-Care?

You might be asking, what is self-care for mental health? Self-care consists of the habits you have that help you take care of yourself and the steps that you take to make yourself feel better. Self-care can be broken down into 4 realms:

  • body and physical care
  • mental and mind/spiritual care
  • relationship care
  • environmental care

Ensuring that you make time to care for yourself in each of these areas is important for your total health.

Body and physical care is what we usually think of when we consider caring for ourselves, like exercise, proper diet, and getting enough sleep. These tend to be the easiest goals to set for ourselves because of the familiarity we have with the activities that we can do to achieve the goals.

Mental and mind or spiritual care consists of what we consider to heal the mind and soul, things like reading, attending to our religion or spiritual beliefs, and spending time outdoors are considered to help care for this part of our body.

Relationship care looks at our interactions with friends, family, and loved ones. Going out for dinner with your best friend or having coffee with a sibling can help us feel the human connections we crave.

And lastly, environmental care reflects the physical space you are in. We often hear the phrase “your home reflects your mind,” meaning if you have a messy home, then your mind could be a mess as well. Decluttering and making your physical surroundings reflect peace and happiness can help our minds feel at ease. Your self-care activities should reflect who you are and what matters to you most.

Self-Care Tips

Realistically, anything that you enjoy doing can be considered self-care. Some things that people to do create a self-care routine and to improve their mental wellbeing are:

  • Exercise
  • Develop a sleep routine
  • Go for a walk
  • Spend time with friends and loved ones
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help
  • Eat healthy meals
  • Spend time in nature
  • Paint, colour, or draw
  • Get a massage
  • Read
  • Focus on positive experiences
  • Speak with a therapist
  • Declutter your home or workspace
  • Buy flowers
  • Meditate

This list does not consist of everything that you could do for self-care activities, it is just a few suggestions to help you get on your way with your own unique self-care plan. Remember when creating your self-care plan to start off small and do things that you enjoy.

Self-Care And Mental Health: How To Get Started

Create small goals related to your self-care routine that are easy to achieve, like meditate for 5 minutes 3 times per week before going to bed for the next 6 weeks. This way your plan is not overwhelming or too big to implement right away. If your self-care routine does not go as planned each week, do not let it get you feeling down. Make some wiggle room in your goals so that if things do not go as planned, you know that you can make up for it elsewhere. For example, if your goal is to meditate before bed and you end up falling asleep on the couch, accept that you were very tired and your body needed rest, you can always get back on track when you are ready.

Write down your goals, make sure that they are SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This way your goals will be easier to achieve, and they will not seem so scary when you begin to implement them into your daily life. It might be difficult at first to get into a good self-care routine, but you can do this!

If you find that this process is difficult or overwhelming, do not hesitate to contact a member of our team to help guide you either through online counselling or in-person therapy. Accessing mental health services to help create a self-care plan or to maintain mental health is just as important as seeking services when you are not feeling your best.

Remember, your mental health matters, and this is one way to improve how you feel daily. You are important, so doing things to help you feel your best is never a bad idea. We are looking forward to guiding you through this journey to improved psychological health.

Get Therapy And Support From Rebound Total Health

At Rebound Total Health, our therapists can help you start creating a positive self-care program.

Ready to take the first step? Connect with a therapist today and get the support you need. At Rebound Total Health, we offer virtual online counselling. Together, you can navigate your journey of building strategies for positive, healthy self-care habits.

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