Why You Need to Prioritize Self-Care and How to Do It

Okay, be really honest with yourself, but how often do you prioritize caring for yourself? I’m talking, soul nourishing caring for yourself every day. I know it can be difficult, life has its demands and creeps up on us, but I know a lot of women who will put anything and everyone else before their needs and forget to take care of themselves. Please use this as your reminder that for you to be your best for everyone else, you need to be your best. That means taking care of you friend! And for this reason, this is why I want to talk about why self-care is important and why you need a self-care plan….STAT!

So let’s start with….when you feel the need to take time for yourself, it doesn’t always mean an elaborate spa day filled with messages and facials (not that I’m against that at all), but truly taking care of yourself and implementing self-care means so much more than a spa day.

What Is Self Care?

Self-care is defined as “the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health.”. It is any action we take or choice we make to fulfill one of our physical, spiritual or emotional needs. It’s the little or big acts of nourishment we do for ourselves to make sure we don’t have a breakdown. It’s not about improving yourself, but taking care of yourself to ensure you are staying balanced and in alignment with your being.

Why is Self-Care Important?

Self-care is all about helping you improve your overall well-being, assist with stress management, and help keep you healthy in the long term. See, something we all need more of, right?!

Like I mentioned above, it is easy to kick taking care of yourself to the bottom of your to-do list when life’s so called ‘urgencies’ pop-up, but remember, you are sacrificing your well-being, stress levels and overall health, and after awhile it will take its toll on you. Exhaustion, burnout, decreased focused, stress, lacking motivation and more starts to settle in and a breakdown could occur.

Especially with what our world is experiencing now, and the fragile state most of us our in, it is even more important you take care of yourself.

So spend a little time to get to know yourself, what self-care means for me might not mean the same for you. Tune in and identify what your mind, body and soul need in order for you to function and be your best self. When you learn what activities and things support your well-being, you’ll be able to create a customized self-care plan that will work specifically for you.

How To Prioritize Self Care In An Actionable Way

First, create a list of the things you value and need as part of your day-to-day – like reading with a cup of coffee in the morning, a walk with your dog at lunch, or an evening a yoga class.

Second, think of the things that make you happy emotionally or fulfill you spiritually, but you may only need to experience once of a few times a week. This could be cleaning and organizing your closet, learning a new hobby, or having a phone chat with a dear friend. Whatever it is, make sure it lights you up and feels soul nourishing too!

As you think through your self-care plan on a daily and weekly basis, below are some areas you can dig into and get creative when it comes to what self-care looks like for you. Have fun with it, get curious, explore and adjust as you go.

Physical: things that involve taking care of your physical body like eating well, drinking enough water, joyful movement, getting enough sleep, etc.

Emotional: Journaling about how you’re feeling, expressing your thoughts and emotions to your partner, monitoring self-talk and thoughts, celebrating achievements, reading a good book etc.

Mental: Mindset and mental health activities, like reading personal development, learning a new skill, meditation, spending time alone, brain-dumping into a journal, reevaluating boundaries, etc.

Social: Investing in healthy relationships, spending time with people you love, calling dear friends who don’t live by you, celebrating others, etc.

Financial: Budgeting for the present and future, taking care of financial responsibilities and overall understanding how my finances affect your current and future.

Professional: Implementing work-life balance, setting boundaries, professional development, networking, time management, planning for the future.

Spiritual: Investing in community and getting involved, mediation, etc.

Of course, the above areas are just a starting point, but take time to brainstorm ways you’d like to improve your self-care, what you need daily and weekly and start to plan out what that looks like in your life. Treat self-care like any other important activity in your life and schedule it in your planner. This will help you prioritize it and shift your mindset around its importance.

Also, don’t think you need to do everything at once. Start with what is doable and what you know you can easily implement into your life now. When you are ready, build upon your list and add in more of the self-care good stuff into your life.

Lastly, commit to putting your happiness well-being first. You are worth this commitment.

Need help creating a plan?

Download my 5 Day Self-Care Jumpstart as a great way to take small actions and create self-care wins.

A few of my favorite self-care items…