What is Self-Care?
Self-care is any activity or routine that focuses on your health and well-being. It isn’t limited to days at the spa or luxurious getaways but involves the more fundamental steps of caring for your physical, mental, and emotional needs. Anything from getting enough rest to socializing with loved ones or eating well can be considered self-care.
Self-care doesn’t have to look the same for each person. The ways in which you care for yourself may differ from the self-care routines of those around you, depending on your specific needs.
Of course, many of us are prone to neglecting self-care altogether. You might believe that prioritizing your own needs is an act of selfishness, or that you simply don’t have the time in your busy day. You may opt to cut back on sleep in order to maximize your time at work or skip dinner plans with friends to watch TV.
Many of us fail to notice how damaging neglecting our self-care can be, and how it can lead to rising stress levels, emotional exhaustion, and even burnout. It’s only when our anxiety, depression, or stress becomes too much to ignore that we might urgently turn to self-care. If neglecting your well-being ultimately leads to burnout, it can take a heavy toll on all aspects of your life, including your health, relationships, work, and academic pursuits.
Pursuing self-care isn’t always easy, especially if you’re struggling with a chronic condition. Depression can sap your motivation to even get out of bed, for example. Anxiety can keep you up at night, making you tired and irritable. And chronic pain can make it difficult to focus or move. However, a little self-care can also help ease all of these symptoms.
Creating a self-care plan doesn’t have to be a difficult undertaking. But it will, by definition, require you to take some time to consider your own needs and desires. By understanding the different types of self-care, you can identify where you need to make improvements in your life and take steps to improve your overall health and well-being.
Types of Self-Care for Mental Well-Being
Self-care can come in many different forms, including physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual. Most of these types of self-care have overlapping benefits. Physical self-care, such as exercise, can also reduce stress and improve your mood. Spiritual self-care, such as joining a religious group, can also enhance your social well-being.
Here’s a closer look at the different types of self-care and how they relate to mental health.
Physical self-care: Physical self-care involves activities that strengthen or restore the well-being of your body. For example, getting enough quality sleep can improve your decision-making, learning, emotional regulation, and focus. Physical activity releases endorphins that elevate your mood and is linked to decreased depression, stress, and anxiety.
Certain dietary choices, such as eating foods that contain omega-3s or probiotics, for example, may improve your mood as well. On the other hand, eating too many sugary treats or ultra-processed foods may have a negative effect on your physical and emotional health.
Emotional self-care: Emotional self-care can include steps to build emotional awareness and learn to better recognize and manage your emotions. Many of us feel disconnected from our emotions, at the mercy of stress, anxiety, or anger. We often act impulsively, doing or saying things that we later regret, or we feel emotionally numb.
But emotional self-care can help you learn to accept all your motions even the ones that don’t necessarily feel good and understand they are temporary states. Emotional self-care practices such as journaling, meditation, or making time for therapy, can also help you reflect on past experiences and heal from trauma.
Benefits of Self-Care in Mental Health
Self-care plays a crucial role in maintaining and enhancing mental health. It refers to the practice of taking deliberate actions to improve one’s well-being, reduce stress, and maintain emotional balance. Regular self-care practices help build resilience, making it easier to cope with life’s challenges and emotional fluctuations.
One of the key benefits of self-care is stress reduction. Taking time to relax, engage in hobbies, or simply disconnect from daily pressures can significantly lower cortisol levels, the hormone associated with stress. Activities such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, or spending time in nature can help individuals calm their minds, allowing them to face difficulties with a clearer perspective.
Self-care also promotes better emotional regulation. When individuals practice self-care regularly, they become more in tune with their feelings and can identify signs of emotional burnout early. This awareness helps prevent overwhelming stress or anxiety, leading to improved emotional stability. It also encourages self-compassion, fostering a healthier mindset where individuals learn to treat themselves with kindness rather than self-criticism.
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Physical health is another important aspect of self-care that contributes to mental well-being. Regular physical activity, healthy eating, and adequate sleep all play a direct role in improving mental clarity, boosting mood, and enhancing overall cognitive function. Exercise, for example, releases endorphins, which are natural mood boosters, while a balanced diet provides the necessary nutrients for brain health.
Self-care also encourages setting boundaries and prioritizing one’s needs. In today’s fast-paced world, it’s easy to become overwhelmed by the demands of work, relationships, and other responsibilities. Practicing self-care helps individuals recognize when they need to take a step back and recharge, preventing burnout. Establishing healthy boundaries allows for greater control over one’s time and energy, reducing the risk of mental fatigue.
consistent self-care helps build a strong sense of self-worth and confidence. By regularly engaging in activities that bring joy and satisfaction, individuals foster a positive relationship with themselves, which can boost self-esteem. This sense of empowerment is crucial in overcoming challenges and navigating life’s ups and downs with resilience.
Decreased risk of burnout. A 2021 study found that self-care in the form of mindfulness practices could increase job satisfaction and reduce the risk of burnout. Self-care activities, in general, can help you maintain a healthier work-life balance.
Improved mood, focus, and productivity. Certain habits, such as getting enough sleep, can improve your mood and focus. After caring for yourself, you’ll likely have an easier time staying on task in other areas of your life as well.
Better self-awareness. Self-reflection activities, such as journaling and meditation, allow you to turn your attention inward and explore your needs, motives, and behavior patterns.
Increased self-esteem and confidence. Treating your body to healthy meals and regular exercise can improve your own body image. Self-care also involves practicing self-compassion and cultivating a kinder inner monologue. In other words, by quietening the negative voice in your head, you can feel better about yourself and boost your self-esteem.
Self-Care Tips and Strategies
Before you can reap the mental health benefits of self-care, you’ll need to figure out how to start your journey. If you’re not used to prioritizing your own needs, you may feel a little self-conscious or even guilty about taking time for yourself.
Keep in mind that self-care can encompass many different types of activities. You can settle on the best type of self-care for you by determining what your needs are, setting goals, and then holding yourself accountable to meeting those goals.
Whatever your specific goals are, though, taking time to de-stress, manage your emotions, and connect with others are all universally important elements of self-care.
1. Build a Personalized Self-Care Plan
While self-care goals and routines can differ from person to person, these tips can help you create a self-care plan that’s right for you.
Assess your needs. Consider the current issues you want to address or areas of your life you may have been neglecting recently. You may want to make more time for exercise or spiritual practices, for example. Or you may want to better manage stress or care for a chronic health condition, such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
Set self-care goals. Take some time to create goals for the day, week, or month ahead. This list can include the specific activity you want to do, as well as information such as a time and location. For example, you might commit to one hour of weekly meal preparation on a Sunday night, 30 minutes of jogging on a Monday morning or walking three times a week after work.
Get as specific as you want. You might decide to create different workout routines for different days of the week or create a list of healthy foods to incorporate into each evening meal.
Gather necessary resources. Recipes, instructional videos, and wellness apps make sure you have whatever tools and information you need to get started. Also consider using alarms, calendars, or other planning tools to make sure you stay on track with your self-care goals.
When it comes to self-care for chronic health conditions, one resource could be your doctor or a mental health professional. They can likely help you come up with specific and effective practices to better manage your condition.
2. Adopt Relaxation Techniques
Stress can affect virtually every area of your life, so managing it is a crucial part of self-care. Try to have a list of regular relaxation techniques that help you relax and unwind. For some people, a relaxation practice might be as simple as going for a walk in nature, listening to comforting music, or a daily meditation. Here are some other ideas to experiment with.
Deep breathing. Slow, cleansing breaths can activate your body’s parasympathetic nervous system the opposite of the fight-or-flight stress response. A variety of deep breathing techniques exist, and you can easily combine them with other relaxation practices. For example, you might focus on your breathing as you sit in the tub, lie on the grass at a park, or use any of the following techniques.
Progressive muscle relaxation. This technique requires you to gradually tense and then relax different muscle groups. Its purpose is to help you explore how tension often a physical symptom of stress feels throughout the body and what it feels like to release that tension. Like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation can also be used in combination with other relaxation practices.
Visualization. During visualization or guided imagery exercises, you use your imagination to conjure up a soothing scene. Maybe you picture yourself sitting in a hammock in your favorite park or spread out on a beach blanket. Or perhaps you choose a more abstract visual, like a ball of stress melting away. You can incorporate aids like soothing music or calming scents to enhance the experience.
3. Keep Yourself Accountable
A self-care plan isn’t etched in stone. Plan to revisit and revise it regularly using the following tips.
Monitor the results. Of course, you’ll want to self-monitor certain health metrics if you have a condition like high blood pressure or diabetes. However, you can also check in with yourself in other ways. If you still feel overwhelmed by stress, for example, you likely need to adapt, change, or extend a self-care session. Or if you feel exhausted or bored by an exercise routine, you may need to cut back or add some variation to your workouts.
Be patient with yourself. Don’t punish yourself if you don’t meet a goal. Instead, ask yourself, “What stopped me from reaching that goal?” If it was something internal, such as a loss of motivation, maybe you need to come up with ways to reward yourself for persevering. If it was something external, such as a scheduling conflict, perhaps you can find ways to adjust your calendar. You might even discover that your original goal was a little too ambitious or you tried to make too many changes at once.
Make adjustments when necessary. Your goals don’t need to remain fixed forever. Things change. You might have new work responsibilities that require you to shift your exercise schedule, for example. Or you may have to change your jogging route due to construction. Stay flexible and be creative when change is necessary.
Reschedule with yourself. If something unexpected comes up, such as an extended work trip, try to reschedule rather than scrap your self-care goal entirely. Think of how you’d handle postponing a date with a partner. Move it to a different day, but commit to still showing up.
4. Learn to Manage Your Emotions
Have you been neglecting your self-care? One way to find the answer is by building emotional intelligence (EQ). EQ is your ability to identify your emotions and understand why they arise. By increasing your EQ, you may learn to connect your emotional dips with the need for more self-care.
Improving your EQ can also enable you to use emotions for positive purposes, such as communicating more effectively or empathizing with others. This, in turn, can help you achieve social self-care goals. Here are some tips for using EQ in self-care.
Self-validate. Although you can often count on loved ones to lend an ear when you’re down, it’s also important to acknowledge your own emotions and explore what’s driving them. For example, without self-validation, you might simply write off your anger as a passing mood. However, if you get curious about the feeling and consider the possible causes, you can make important discoveries. Perhaps you’re still grieving the loss of a loved one, for example, or maybe you’re angry because coworkers have breached your boundaries.
Turn emotion into action. Rather than suppress emotions or shame yourself for experiencing them, use them to compel yourself into action. When you’re feeling low, don’t wait for something to come along and boost your mood. Think of ways you can uplift yourself, whether that involves phoning a friend, going for a walk, or journaling.
Practice self-compassion. Aim to be less self-critical when you make mistakes and experience setbacks. Instead, be patient and nonjudgmental. Talk to yourself as if you were talking to a friend. What would you say to someone you cared about to acknowledge their pain? Also, strive to be self-accepting when you’re dealing with unpleasant emotions. Know that it’s normal to feel negative emotions like anger, sadness, and disgust.
5. Build Your Social Network
Building social support can go hand-in-hand with meeting other self-care goals. Friends can inspire you to keep up with a workout routine, for example, or motivate you to stick with a healthy eating plan. Socializing with people who care about you can also be an effective stress-reducing activity and bolster your resilience.
Invite people in. Look for ways to deepen your existing connections. Ask a coworker or casual acquaintance to join you for a coffee or lunch break. You can also tie your socializing in with other self-care goals. Try inviting friends or family members to join you for a weekly meal-prep session or bike ride in the park.
Join groups and clubs that align with self-care practices. You can nurture your interests while also expanding your social circle. If you have a self-care goal of being more active, consider joining a local swimming club or sports team. For spiritual self-care, you might join a religious organization. Yoga and meditation groups can help you meet your mental self-care goals.
Volunteer. Although volunteer work involves serving others, it’s another way to cultivate a sense of belonging, an important element of social self-care. Through volunteering, you can also find a sense of purpose and accomplishment, as well as being a part of something bigger than yourself.
WHO Response
During COVID-19, WHO works on strategies, programs, and tools to assist governments in responding to the health needs of adolescents.
For example, the Helping Adolescents Thrive (HAT) Initiative is a joint WHO-UNICEF effort to strengthen policies and programs for the mental health of adolescents. More specifically, the efforts made through the Initiative are to promote mental health and prevent mental health conditions. They are also intended to help prevent self-harm and other risky behaviors, such as the harmful use of alcohol and drugs, that harm the mental and physical health of young people.
WHO has also developed a module on Child and Adolescent Mental and Behavioural Disorders as part of the mhGAP Intervention Guide 2.0. This Guide provides evidence-based clinical protocols for the assessment and management of a range of mental health conditions in non-specialized care settings.
Furthermore, WHO is developing and testing scalable psychological interventions to address emotional disorders of adolescents and guidance on mental health services for adolescents.
WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean has developed a mental health training package for educators for improved understanding of the importance of mental health in the school setting and to guide the implementation of strategies to promote, protect, and restore mental health among their students. It includes training manuals and materials to help scale up the number of schools promoting mental health.
- Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx)
- WHO Global Health Estimates 2000-2021
- Global status report on alcohol and health and treatment of substance use disorders 2024
- World Drug Report. Geneva: UNODC 2024
The Importance of Mental Health Today
Globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds experiences a mental disorder, accounting for 15% of the global burden of disease in this age group. Depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders are among the leading causes of illness and disability among adolescents.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among those aged 15–29 years old. The consequences of failing to address adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults.