Prioritize your wellness this summer with 8 pillars of self care.
🏖️ Summer is the PERFECT time to learn about these 8 pillars, evaluate where you’re already strong in practicing self care, and identify areas you might need to focus on and enhance this summer.
8 Pillars of Self Care
🧠 Mental: A task or situation that stimulates your mind or your intellect.
- Reading books, blogs, or articles
- Listening to informative podcasts
- Go to a museum or other educational event
- Take time to do puzzles
- Writing in a journal, letters, creatively
- Take a course at a local jr. college or online
- Invest in your hobbies or try a new one
💪 Physical: Things you put into practice to improve your overall physical health.
- Being active – in whatever ways best serve you.
- Healthy eating
- Body positive appreciation
- Get plenty of sleep.
- Drink lots of water.
- Take time to stretch throughout the day or get a massage.
- Relax and soothe your body with a hot bath.
🥰 Emotional: Activities that help you connect, process, reflect, and control a full range of emotions so you can proceed clearly.
- Journal for stress relief, clarity, and reflection.
- Hire a life coach, therapist, or counselor to suite your needs.
- Recite daily affirmations and mantras to build positive self image.
- Practice gratitude and mindfulness.
- Seek out a personal mentor for guidance and support.
- Learn breathing exercises to calm down and regulate nervous system.
🗂️ Practical: Assignments that fulfill core aspects of your life in order to prevent future stress, burn out, disorganized chaos, and feeling lost. This includes your Financial Well-being.
- Organize or clean part of your home, office, or car.
- Meal prep to make the week easier and stay on track.
- Take a course on financial literacy, pay off bills, or see a financial advisor.
- Complete your weekly planner and schedule ahead of time.
- Order pickup/delivery groceries and household needs to save time.
- Choose and lay out clothing for the week ahead of time.
👩🏻💻 Professional: Activities that support feeling balanced and fulfilled in your career & livelihood.
- Be sure to take your daily lunch breaks to fuel your body and brain.
- Squeeze movement breaks into your busy schedule.
- Form virtual or in-person coworker connections.
- Take courses in-person or online to build skills for your role.
- Attend professional conferences.
- Put your phone on do not disturb to be most productive.
- Seek out a career mentor to help plan your path to success.
👋 Social & Community: Moments that deepen and strengthen the relationships with the people in your life and community.
- Plan a girls’ night out with supportive women.
- Meet friends/family for lunch or brunch.
- Squeeze a coffee meetup with a colleague or friend into your day.
- Join an in-person or online social group.
- Schedule a date night with your significant other.
- Pet cuddles are always the best.
- Send greeting cards to those in your life.
🙏 Spiritual: Activities that care for your spirit and encourage thinking bigger than yourself.
- Spend time in nature.
- Practice guided meditation.
- Take a yoga class.
- Pray and/or attend worship.
- Create a vision board.
- Volunteer for a cause near to your heart and benefiting others.
🏡 Environmental: Taking care of the spaces and places around you.
- Arrange your workspace to be more comfortable and productive.
- Exploring somewhere new (even if it’s in your own town).
- Decluttering your living space or work on home enhancements.
- Change lighting to be more calming or more energizing.
- Going outside for a walk or find other ways to connect with nature.
- Switch up your workday by spending time working in a coffee shop, nature area with seating, or other location out of the norm.
- Do something appealing to your five senses within your environment (light a candle, essential oil diffuser, fresh flowers, new piece of artwork, etc).
