Self-care is essential and therefore it is important for us to have a plan that can help us take care of our physical, mental, and emotional health. Here’s a list of tips that you can follow in order to make your self-care plan work.

How often do you prioritise caring for yourself? If you are like me or most people I know, I probably know the answer. Therefore, in this article I want to address why self-care is important and how committing to self-care habits can provide you long-term benefits. Most of us from an early age are taught that being selfless is a good thing, and there are many proven benefits of altruism. But nobody teaches us the fact that if we’re not attuned to who we are and what we want, we can be negatively impacted by this art of prioritising others over our own selves.

No stress relief activities can help you if you don’t take care of yourself. Self-care is usually described as a conscious act one takes in order to promote their own physical, mental, and emotional health. Many people believe self-care to be a luxury, rather than a priority. At its core, self-care is any action we take or choice we make to fulfill our needs in order to improve our overall well-being.

Why self-care plan is important?

A self-care plan was never considered important by individuals in their daily lives, but nowadays with so many responsibilities and stress, we often don’t have enough time to take care of ourselves and follow a self-care regime. Therefore, it becomes important for us to seriously commit to a self-care plan so that we can ensure that we’re caring for our mind, body, and spirit.

We usually keep ourselves at the bottom of our priority list when work and other things get over life. We often forget our peace of mind and calmness that we need in our life in the midst of chaos. Additionally, when we put ourselves at the bottom of our to-do-list, we’re more stressed and less energetic and creative. And, that’s why self-care is one of the secrets to the physical and mental health of an individual.

It therefore, sometimes becomes important to take a “me” moment.

How to create a self-care plan?

1. Create an art of prioritising yourself:

The most important thing while building a self-care plan is to create a list in which you prioritise yourself. This list must not include various work-related deadlines or activities for other people. Prioritising yourself includes whatever things that recharge you, and then incorporating it as a ritual into your life.

You need to give separate attention and space to your mental, physical, spiritual, emotional, financial, social, and professional needs.

2. Consistency is the key:

It is rightly said, “It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” In life, consistency is really important. In regards to self-care, it’s necessary to make little things work. It’s the little things that add up and make a big difference in your life.

We all are aware that maintaining consistency is an essential thing but all of us, at some point or the other, struggle to be consistent in what we do. But maintaining regularity and repetition can really help us in being consistent in order to run the cycle of self-care.

3. Note the barriers:

In order to keep the self-care regime going on, it is necessary to note the barriers that may come in our way in form of an obstacle that can hamper our routine and self-care plans. Also, after knowing your barriers, try to strategise ways that you might be able to use to shift the coming barriers.

4. Increase your emotional intelligence:

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognise our feelings, emotions, and moods to better identify what we are feeling and why. By knowing your emotional intelligence, you will be able to keep a check on your feelings, and therefore, will be able to identify and acknowledge them wisely.

5. Be realistic:

Reality is something that can’t be ignored. Setting your aims and acknowledging reality is a perfect balance to pursue your goals. While creating a self-care plan be realistic and avoid being overly ambitious. Stick to a plan that you can follow without being stressed. Also, setting realistic goals keeps an individual’s motivation up.