Self-Care for Beginners
What is self-care?
The World Health Organisation defines self-care as: “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.”
What that means is, you take care of yourself.
What self-care isn’t is self-indulgence. A recent article by the BBC News website entitled how mindfulness could make you selfish describes how practicing mindfulness can exaggerate some people’s selfish tendencies. Increasing inward focus, means they forget about others and are less willing to help those in need.
However, the same mindfulness practices with different mindsets can have different outcomes.Tania Singer, director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, conducted a nine-month trial where participants did exercises aimed at improving presence. Things like mindful breathing, and loving-kindness meditations (a meditation is where you deliberately think about your sense of connection with others, including family, friends, and strangers). Measures of their compassion increased significantly after the loving-kindness meditation and pair work. And also produced the biggest reduction in their stress responses. Singer comments, “You learn not just to listen empathically; you learn to open up your vulnerability. This allowed the participants to recognize the shared humanity of positive and negative feelings”
So your INTENTION is key. Why are you doing these self-care practices? If you are following yogic practices of not harm (to yourself and others) your practice will allow you to thrive, flourish and transform.
How to start your self-care practice?
I like to split wellness into the following categories as it helps me see which aspects of my life I am neglecting where I can improve with self-care.
PHYSICAL
EMOTIONAL
SPIRITUAL
SOCIAL/INTELLECTUAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
VOCATIONAL
Then I ask the questions;
What do I want more of?
What is holding me back from achieving this?
What can I do to support myself moving forward?
I ask these questions after a yoga sequence and meditation. To give you an example of my practice. After asana (postures) practice and meditation, I will ask these questions;
I want to connect with people. I might be feeling lonely and a little isolated
COVID, I’m not outgoing, scared of judgment and rejection
Dip my toe into a new online book club I saw. At least try it.
Get the gist? In the social and emotional categories, I notice I am wanting. By adding more social interactions, I will also grow spiritually.
It isn’t about selfish wants. It is about the aspects of your life that are lacking and you need to boost to flourish. But to get to the point of figuring out what you need. Or sometimes would do better with less. You have to be honest with yourself. For this, an embodied approach works well. So for me, I draw on my experience as a Yoga Therapist to take a journey inwards during my yoga practice.
Some self-care tips?
Get embodied. Do a 15 minute yoga practice every morning or evening.
After every practice sit and focus on your breath for 2-5 minutes.
Journal your questions and answers. It is good to keep a record and look back and see patterns.
Take inspiration from the suggestions below, maybe make your own. I used Canva.
