What Are The Best Ways To Practise Self-Care?
Self-care offers many benefits, making it important to prioritize. Indeed, it helps to improve your physical health while reducing stress and the risks of developing anxiety and depression. What's more, it boosts your confidence and self-esteem, leading to happier relationships and increased daily productivity. It's no wonder that WHO considers self-care as an effective aspect of national health systems. Here are some helpful ways you can prioritize self-care.
Prioritize exercise
An inexpensive yet effective way to practice self-care is to exercise daily. Regular exercise comes with many perks that improve your life significantly. It triggers changes in the brain parts that regulate anxiety and stress, for starters. Besides, it boosts the production of endorphins that induces positive feelings while increasing your brain's sensitivity to norepinephrine and serotonin, which combats depression. Furthermore, it increases your energy levels, tones your muscles, and aids weight loss. That said, you'd want to include working out in your daily routine if you haven't already.
Fortunately, several workouts are specifically designed to address certain areas, so keep this in mind. For instance, exercises like walking, gardening, dancing, pilates, and circuit training effectively reduce stress. Likewise, push-ups, lunges, sit-ups, arm raises, etc., are effective at toning your muscles. As a tip, choose the activities that you're comfortable with to prevent working out from becoming a chore. You can also get a workout partner to make the experience more enjoyable.
Don’t skip sleep
Sleep is a crucial aspect of daily life that helps your mind and body recharge. This leaves you feeling refreshed and mentally alert for the day. Besides, people who have enough sleep are less prone to illnesses and chronic diseases and can maintain a healthy weight. What's more, good sleep helps you make better decisions, as your mind is more active. Therefore, you might be doing yourself more harm if you haven't been sleeping well. The CDC recommends that adults sleep for at least seven hours nightly.
Fortunately, you can take practical steps to ensure that you don't skip sleep. For instance, it's best to avoid consuming caffeine late in the day, as it can stimulate your nervous system, preventing your body from relaxing. You also want to avoid taking long daytime naps if it constantly messes with your night sleep. As a tip, prepare your room by decluttering and reducing noise. By all means, avoid using your smart devices before sleeping, as they emit blue light that prevents you from falling asleep.
Go for regular check-ups
Your health is paramount, and going for regular check-ups is a sure way of ensuring your wellbeing. Regular check-ups help you detect and treat potentially life-threatening diseases earlier. Moreover, it limits complication risks by constantly monitoring existing conditions, increasing your lifespan ultimately. Routine check-ups depend on your age; people aged 19-21 can go once every two to three years, while those aged 22-64 can go once every one to three years. Adults aged 65 and above can go once annually for the best results. Therefore, it's best to consult with your OBGYN and other health providers to create a suitable check-up routine for you.