How to Take Care of Yourself: Easy Techniques for Everyone 

Everyone understands something different under this concept. For some people, care is good nutrition and sleep, for others, it’s the fulfillment of their desires, for others, it’s playing a andar bahar Indian card game or going to a vacation at the sea. But the truth is that personality includes several facets: I-physical, I-spiritual, I-social. And for all of them, there are different ways to take care of oneself.

Physical Health

The body is an integral part of a person. It always reacts to stress, emotional experiences, often responds with psychosomatic disorders, when a person ignores the signals of his subconscious mind.

How to take care of yourself on a physical level:

• Find a type of physical activity to your liking, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be a gym or fitness.
• Adjust your diet, gradually eliminating unhealthy foods, but leave them, for example, as a treat once a week.
• Regulate your sleep, not only its duration but also its quality.
• Don’t neglect preventive medical check-ups.
• Give up habits that are destructive to your body.
• Practice relaxation methods, massages, aromatherapy and meditation.

To do this, make a list of necessary actions, distribute them over time, and stick to the established plan.

Mental Health

It’s impossible to avoid all external stressors, but a person has the ability to minimize them in everyday life. The inner world is a reflection of the outer world. Everything that happens around you affects your psyche.

To take care of it, you need to filter the information you get from the news, low-quality content, books, and social media. Give up those sources, the perception of which brings you neither benefit nor pleasure. Give preference to good music, movies, books, subscriptions to social networks, which energize you positively or enrich your knowledge.

A simple technique to take care of yourself is an informational detox. At least once a week, give up gadgets in favor of lively communication, contemplation of nature, art objects.

Turn off all monitors an hour before you go to sleep. Find an opportunity to be in silence, when you dont hear the noise of the road, other people, the background from the TV.

The motto “take care of yourself” means that it’s up to you how happy you will be. Don’t wait for the circumstances for this to happen on their own. Time is always short, and stresses and worries – a lot. And only the right priorities and awareness of the importance of taking care of yourself will help you find the opportunity to do it

Health of Your Immediate Social Circle

The people around you influence your personality. They can be supportive and resourceful, in which case they fill you with energy, help you cope with difficult experiences, share positive emotions and become a reliable rear for you. But it can also be toxic. Then it’s destructive to your personality.

To take care of yourself, pay attention to the people around you. Analyze your environment as an independent expert and make a list of those who:

• Neglects your feelings, desires, thinking only about their own needs.
• Manipulates you with threats, ignoring, demonstrative insults, mockery, insults, even if they are said in a joking manner.
• Imposes feelings on you that you don’t feel – for example, trying to make you feel guilty when you refuse to help, make concessions.
• Uses you as a container to drain your negative emotions.
• Tries to boost their self-esteem at your expense.
• Radiates negative attitudes, complains about life, criticizes themselves or you.

The people on this list have a negative impact on your well-being. With some of them, it may be worth reducing the amount of communication. With some, you need to learn how to set personal boundaries.

Often it’s about the inner inability to stand up for yourself, the desire to save face, to be good, to always do the right thing, even to your own detriment.

How to Learn to Take Care of Yourself

By mastering a few techniques, you’ll be able to approach your life more consciously, understand your emotions and make informed decisions without letting outside circumstances influence your judgment.

The “Refuse the Inner Critic” Technique

Negative factors are not always in the external environment. Some of them come from within the individual himself. What this manifests in:

• Excessive demandingness.
• A habit of constantly remembering his failures and past mistakes.
• Searching for one’s own shortcomings.
• A ban on taking care of oneself.
• A critical attitude toward the results of one’s work.
• Self-defeating and self-pity.
• A habit of blaming oneself and increased responsibility for others.

All of this is the voice of the inner critic who says: “You won’t succeed anyway,” “You’ve ruined everything again,” “Who will want you like this,” “Don’t try to change anything,” “You got what you deserved.”

The inner critic is especially active in people whose parents gave them little support, lacked love, attention, care, and instead judged, compared them with other children, and emphasized their mistakes and shortcomings.

Even if parents are not around, the person, having already become an adult, becomes a strict parent to himself or herself, and the inner voice actually belongs to them, speaks their words. And it seems that if you do everything right, don’t make mistakes, succeed, then parents will finally recognize the merits of the child.

A simple technique to deal with it and take care of yourself is to become a parent to yourself, but not a strict and critical one, but a caring one.

Imagine that you are the perfect parent in your mind. And every time you make a mistake, when you don’t know how to act, where to put your doubts and fears, speak to yourself with words that a caring adult would say. These are words of support, approval, participation, faith in you.

The “Freedom for the Inner Child” Technique

Besides the parent, strict or caring, there is another form of self in man-the inner child. This is the immediate part of the personality that is responsible for the open expression of emotions and desires. When you laugh heartily, cry, play, do what you are interested in, have a passionate conversation with your loved ones – all these are manifestations of the inner child. And the more freedom you give it, the happier you feel.

The phrase “take care of yourself” in many ways means taking care of this very child, when you let it manifest itself, fulfill its desires, fool around, allow yourself not to be a serious adult, forget about problems and responsibilities for a while, and just enjoy the moment.

Try to let your inner child out at least once each day.

The “Contact With Desires” Technique

This is a simple technique to learn to better understand and take care of yourself. Throughout the day, whatever you do, relate it to how you feel. Do you like what you’re doing now? Are you enjoying it? Or do you just have to do it?

Ask these questions as you make breakfast, drive to work, talk to other people, go to the store, read a book, etc. This isn’t to say that you should give up right away on things that don’t really bring you a sense of joy in the week. That’s impossible because people have obligations to others. But this technique helps you learn to connect with yourself, recognize your desires, be aware of them and make meaningful decisions. Make a list of the things you do that you want to do and those that you are obligated to do. Try to find a balance to take care of yourself and others.

The “Abandoning Unnecessary Things” Technique

In the modern rhythm of life, one doesn’t notice that there are too many people, noise, information, things, responsibilities around. He is in an endless stream of things, lacks time for contemplation, thoughtful reflection, listening to his needs, and taking care of himself and his well-being.

The Abandonment Technique allows you to free up the psychological space of your life. To do this:

• Delegate authority. Distribute household chores among your loved ones, delegate some professional functions to your subordinates, and don’t do others’ work for them.
• Give up things you don’t need. This applies to things, activities, responsibilities that don’t give you anything – don’t bring pleasure, don’t contribute to personal or professional growth, don’t help your loved ones.
• Resolve the problems you keep putting off for later. These are small, non-urgent tasks that you don’t have time for, but you think about them, remember them, and therefore waste your psychological resources that you could have spent on taking care of yourself.

The “Stroking Savings Failure” Technique

This is a psychotherapeutic technique that focuses primarily on self-care. “Strokes” are actions that make you feel loved, accepted, important. It can be physical contact with loved ones. But it’s also compliments, words of gratitude, appreciation, praise, actions aimed at support, help.

Not everyone knows how to receive strokes and not everyone knows how to give them. For example, a girl who is embarrassed when she is praised and belittles her merits doesn’t allow herself to receive strokes. A woman who stops herself when she wants to hug someone because she thinks she will look ridiculous doesn’t know how to give strokes.

Another problem is that people find it difficult to ask for help, attention, hugs when they need them. It seems as if the other person has to figure it out for themselves. But the truth is that if you ask someone close to you for a hug or to say something nice, you thereby take care of yourself and feel happiness. Moreover, the other person will also feel happiness, because they will understand that you need them, they are important to you, and they can help you.

Make a list of the strokes that are most meaningful to you. The second list is the strokes you miss. Think about how you can get them. Try to get at least one of them every day.

Remember that strokes come not only from other people but also from you when you praise yourself, when you thank yourself, when you take care of your body and soul, when you give yourself gifts.

Gratitude List Technique

Expressing gratitude is also a self-care technique that brings joy not only to the person you are thanking, but also to yourself.

There was an interesting psychological study in which three groups of people participated. The first one wrote down every day in a diary everything for which she is grateful. The second wrote about what caused them anxiety. And the third displayed neutral events they encountered during the day. As a result, the first group that had practiced the gratitude technique for two months began to feel 25 percent happier than the others, even though they did nothing else on purpose.

You can express gratitude not only to other people who make you happy, but also to your health and your life.

Why It’s Important to Take Care of Yourself

A person shows attention to those whom he loves. Therefore, the refusal to take care of oneself may be a sign of internal conflict, where a person cannot love himself, reconcile himself with his true desires, but depends on the opinion of other people.

At the same time, people who take care of themselves are more stress-resistant, less prone to emotional burnout, don’t take the position of a victim and don’t become dependent on relationships. Self-care allows them to become stronger in spirit, to grow as a person, to rely on themselves, and to build their lives the way they want, while not forgetting about the needs of their loved ones.

They clearly understand what they want, they know how to set goals in life and achieve them, and they easily tolerate failure. They know how to enjoy life, are less prone to psychosomatic illnesses. In relationships they don’t lose themselves, and know how to build a trusting contact based on the principles of reciprocity, respect and love.

Self-care is a valuable contribution that you make to your physical and psychological health. Thanks to it, you replenish your inner resources, maintain harmony, which allows you to find strength to realize your desires and take care of those who are dear to you.