Starting Your Physical Self Care Obsession

We all know that self care and physical health are very important aspects of life. They are things that we have to do to keep our mind and body healthy. But did you know there is a way to combine those 2 different things together?

Physical self care is a concept of taking care of your body by performing self care tasks that are more active or use more energy.

What Is Self Care?

Self care is an act of taking care of yourself. They are behaviors that you perform to nurture your well-being. Some are daily activities; most are habits that you have put in place for yourself and not anybody else.

Self care is a big topic that we won’t delve too deep into, but just know it is something based on you for you. Here are a couple articles highlighting self care and why it’s important.

Why Your Body Needs Activity

Your body is a working machine and just like any other machine it needs to have maintenance done and needs to be greased. In human body talk that means eating and drinking right and exercising. 

We’ve all heard the ‘drink more water, exercise more speeches’, but it is true that those little tasks contribute a lot to the health of your physical being or your body. They keep it healthy so you can live a fuller, happier life.

If you don’t take care of your body it can fail you down the line. I like to think of my physical body as a separate part of me; something I thank for having by paying it back with exercise, healthy food and lots of water. 

This helps me make sure I give it the love it deserves, so I can stay healthy longer. Not keeping it healthy can lead to obesity, diseases and worse unfortunately. 

So, it is important to incorporate activity into your life and self care to help take care of your body, so you can live a longer, healthier life.

Combining The Two

So now combining the two above topics, physical self care is something you are physically doing for yourself as self care. It can be many things, but it usually has something that involves activity or healing of your body.

It mushes together the activity and physical aspect that your body needs, by also nourishing your self care and in turn mental health. 

Physical Self Care and Mental Health

Speaking of that, many think that self care is strictly for your mental health. While self care helps your mental status a lot, certain types of self care also help your body. 

However, self care, your body and mind work in a funny way. Many times when you perform a physical self care activity, your mental health ends up benefiting, and sometimes vice versa. 

Self Care Tasks

There is no shortage of tasks that you can do for self care. Many are going to depend on the person and what helps them because everyone is different. Remember, something might help some, but not others. 

It is very dependent on the person for what they do as self care and recharging. Some might find a bath relaxing while others might go visit a friend. 

It also depends on what you want to do. Do you want to create a habit? Or a schedule to do it every week on a certain day? Do you want it for when you are feeling stressed? Or for everyday? Is there a certain self care practice that you want to do long term?

And this is what’s nice about self care and the things you can do. There is a big variety that you can pick what works for you and tailor it to you. 

I am going to break it down into 2 different categories of self care: bigger tasks and littler tasks.

Bigger Tasks

Bigger self care tasks are acts that you are trying to turn into a regular practice or habit. These take a lot more time and energy to do because you are actively doing something more than every now and then.

Making things habit takes time due to you having to repeatedly do it so it becomes a habit, and you don’t have to think about doing it. This aspect of it can be frustrating and therefore exhausting because it is hard to change your normal routine. 

On the other hand, they are extremely beneficial because once you get to that point of habit it is regularly scheduled physical self care time.

A really great example of this physical self care is setting an exercise schedule. Most people set how many times they want to exercise in a week and that’s what they have to follow. It’s hard at first, but quickly becomes a habit and now they have a habit of getting in their physical self care. To help keep track of this check out some habit trackers on my Etsy shop!

Some more examples of these are:

• Doing yoga twice a week
• Going for a walk every morning
• Taking up cycling or pilates
• Starting a fitness program
• Making a meal plan

Littler Tasks

These tasks are more so every now and then ones. Kind of like extra ones that you can do to help when you are having a hard time or your body needs more self care than what you normally do.

With the mental health aspect, some times are just a bit more stressful or we just need a little extra love. Or sometimes your body is just a little more stiff, sore or tired than usual and it needs a small boost. 

Even though these tasks are little they are equally important. Your body usually tells you when it needs something or something needs to change. And like I said every day or week is a new start. So this week you may need some more love than last week and that’s okay. But that’s where these tasks come in.

Most times they are added onto your bigger tasks as some bonus content. 

Some examples of these:

• Having a hot shower or bubble bath
• Going to yoga 
• Spending time outside
• Taking the dogs for a walk
• Meditating

Recommendations

Personally, I have found what works best is having a bigger task to focus on to start, then adding more as you go. It’s hard doing it all at once and can become very overwhelming. Then I will incorporate some of the littler tasks in where I need them. 

I recommend doing this because then you have a physical self care activity that you are doing on the regular, then adding in those other things where needed and as needed. 

To start, pick one physical self care practice that you really want to focus on and make a habit for yourself. Then work on that and once you get to a spot where you are comfortable doing that, start adding other things (if you want). And even when you are not in the comfy zone with your bigger task you can still do your littler tasks. 

It is very flexible for a person. You can make it and do it however works best for you and only you. Remember, this is something that you are doing to better yourself and has nothing to do with others. 

So Many Options

Physical self care is also not just exercising and doing something you don’t enjoy. Know that physical self care has just as big a variety as self care itself. 

Yes, there are usually more active activities, but we’ve already talked about why that is important. 

But with so many options comes the tough decision of knowing where to start. Well that is totally up to you and how you feel about it and your comfort zone. But here are some ideas of different types of physical self care: 

• Drink a glass of water 
• Try a fitness app or challenge
• Youtube you’re favourite type of workout
• Look for exercise classes in your area
• Eat at least one healthy meal a day
• Practice good sleep hygiene
• Eat at least one fruit or vegetable a day
• Have a relaxing shower or bath
• Sit in the sunlight
• Drink a cup of low caffeine tea
• Go for a walk
• Do some stretching
• Have a spa night

Check out Pinterest or here for even more ideas!

Don’t forget you are awesome and can do anything!