Why self-care is important for creating a happy life?
Self-care means taking the time to do things that help you live well and improve both your physical health and mental health. This can help you manage stress, lower your risk of illness, and increase your energy. Even small acts of self-care in your daily life can have a big impact.
Engaging in a self-care routine has been clinically proven to reduce or eliminate anxiety and depression, reduce stress, improve concentration, minimize frustration and anger, increase happiness, improve energy and more.
Benefits of self-care also include: enhanced self-confidence and increased productivity.
So, with that in mind why wouldn’t we practise self-care?
Let’s unpack what might be stopping you.
Sometimes it can be hard to start, feel overwhelming or life just gets in the way. A great way to get started is to dedicate just five minutes. It helps to plan it into your day so that it starts to become a habit. Once it’s locked in it will feel natural.
Feeling guilty for taking time for yourself is very common. It is something that at the beginning of my journey I really struggled with. Self-care wasn’t modelled to me as a child (my mum absolutely did the best she could but as a single parent of three kids and no support network self-care it was tough). But, when you realise how important self-care is it helps you to see that by investing in your wellness through self-care it means that you are a better person, mother, friend, wife etc it becomes easier to allow yourself some guilt free time.
A big barrier can be ourselves, I would often say “I don’t have time”. But when I broke that down (in an inquisitive and non-shaming way) I realised I was just prioritising other things and not using my time effectively…hello doom scrolling. When I finally started to dedicate five minutes to myself every morning I started showing up differently. I showed myself that I was a priority, that I was worth investing my time and energy into myself. It suddenly started to become easier to practise self-care.
Plus, research has shown that focusing on our happiness is one of the most selfless things they can do.