Transcripts
1. Introduction: What does that mean to you? I think there's a misconception these days that
self-care is all about. Spot treatments that might form part of self-care
for you much more. And because we're all
very different people, self-care, different
to each of those. How do you decide what
self-care is right for you? My name is Emma and I wrong
place where I create, which is all about the
importance of self-care. I've shown you before how
planning and create a healthy, happy and the best way to approach docker is to
take a holistic approach. I've been lucky that
self-care across four different delays
which physical, emotional, social, and adding. In this class we'll explore
what self-care really is. And we'll explore those for
the minds of some path. And I'll provide examples of activities that
really helped me. I'll support you to think
about how a balanced approach to self-care come away with a personalized self-care plan
tailored to your lifestyle, produce this outcome and
you can quick reference. You can choose activities
based on the time you have available and what areas
you need to focus on. We only more of allies. Ms. Cost, to think
more about practices, even integers, two lines. And we have energized and ready. Let's head into the
next lesson and I'll tell you all about
the class project.
2. Class Project: This class has been
designed to give you inspiration about the types of activities that could introduce more wellness into your life. Once you've explored the four different
domains of self-care, I'll support you to
produce a self-care menu, which will act as a
balanced self-care plan that's tailored to your
needs and lifestyle. When you feel like you need
to practice self-care, you don't want to
have to sit down and think about
the activities you might carry out and have to make those decisions on
what's gonna be best. So the benefit of having
a self-care menu, that work is already
done for you and you have a quick
tool available for reference to pick an activity or maximize that time you have
available for self-care. If you find yourself with a
set amount of time available, you can quickly choose an
activity based on the amount of time you have and which area you feel
you need to focus on. E.g. if you're feeling a little bit disconnected
from people, you might choose to focus on something from the
social category, but we'll get into that
a little bit more later. There are some different
ways you might choose to put together
yourself Can menu, and I'll show you some examples. You may wish to go completely functional and do
a simple table. Or you may want to
do something more decorative and play with
stickers or art supplies. We may want to produce
something digitally. Once you've produced
your self-care menu, it'll be great if you could upload it to the
project gallery. I would love to see what
you've come up with and it can be a great source
of inspiration for others. But first, grab a pen and
paper to make some notes. Find a convenient quiet spot, and let's jump in.
3. What is Self-Care?: So hopefully you have
a pen and paper with you ready to take lots of notes. And I'm going to start
by talking about what actually is self-care. So like I said in
the introduction, there's a misconception these
days that self-care is all about Spar days and
bubble bath face masks. And those are the
kinds of images that we find ourselves
faced with when we're consuming
social media content around self-care
or similar things. And once that might
form part of self-care, I love ago bubble bath. It's not all self-care. Self-care is so much
more than that. Self-care is different
for each person because we are all
different as individuals. And so that leaves you
with the question, how do I know what
self-care is right for me? And if I'm choosing
the right things, you know that the self-care activities you are
taking part in our working when they leave you feeling nourished
and re-energized. So like I said, that will be different
for different people, but you can pick up
on those feelings. Raphael, what's working for you? It's often also thought of as something we
resort to when we're exhausted and we're really
on that point of burnout. But you don't have to wait to practice self-care until
you're feeling like that. The better way to
do it, if you can, is to introduce regular
self-care practices into your life to prevent you get
into that exhaustion stage. It's all about identifying things that can help
us feel better and finding ways to do these on a more regular basis in
its broadest definition, self-care is anything we do that contributes to our
sense of wellness. And we benefit the
most when we take a holistic approach
to self-care, I like to think of self-care across four different domains. These are our physical wellness, emotional wellness,
social wellness, and adding meaning
to our lives by making sure that
we're practicing self-care in all of
these different areas. It can help us feel more balanced and healthy as
a whole human being. Now you might be
feeling a little bit overwhelmed by that and thinking about all the extra things that you're going to have
to do to feel good. And what we don't want is for self-care to feel pressured, like even more things
that you've got to add to your
never-ending to-do list. We want to be in
the mindset that self-care is something
you get to do. It's something you choose to do. And these are things
that will help you feel better throughout the
next four lessons, I'm going to explore each
of those four domains. And I'll give examples from my own life of things
I've carried out, as well as broader activities
that you might like to try. I'd encourage you to write
notes as we're going. I said anything
that speaks to you, anything you feel
you might like to try or implement
in your own life. And that will help
form the basis of your self-care menu
a bit later on. And then we'll really be two types of things that
you're writing down. Might be habits that
you want to try and implement on
an ongoing basis. And other things might be one
or two activities that you want to add into your
schedule each day, week, month, or year, however often you
want to do them. They self-care
activities aren't just about making you
today feel better. They're about future you and making future you
feel better too, which sounds pretty great to me. So if you haven't already
grab that pen and paper, and we will jump into
the next lesson, which will be on our first
domain of physical wellness.
4. Physical Wellness: In this lesson, we're
going to talk about the first of our four domains,
which is physical. And just like all aspects
of self-care really, this is going to be
very different for the individual person depending
on your physical house. So for me, e.g. I. Have a chronic illness which affects how I can move my body. It affects my sleep. I have food sensitivities
and sensitive to medications and I have medications
that I have to take on an ongoing basis
to keep myself. What are the types of things
that I might include in my self-care practice
might be very different from someone who's
very athletic, very active, and has no physical health
conditions whatsoever. I have to point out that
the suggestions I gave in these lessons are
not medical advice, they are general suggestions. And it's obviously
advisable to speak to any physical health
professionals before undertaking any changes
that might affect you. So speaking broadly, there are three pillars that affect
our physical health. And these are adequate sleep, nutrition and physical exercise. I'm going to start by
talking about sleep, which is one I think
is talked about a lot. You may or may not have heard
some of these suggestions, but I think it's always
worth having a recap of them and thinking
about how you can apply them to your life. Now, I am someone who has always struggled with sleep and I've
tried all sorts of things. And I can really feel
the difference in my mind and my body depending on whether or not I've
had an adequate amount of sleep and the quality
of sleep that I've had. But there are simple
changes that you can make that can most things
in a positive way. So let's think
about those setting a consistent schedule for
going to sleep and waking up. When you do this over time, your body will expect rest
at a certain time of day. Now you might find
yourself staying up late or putting
off, going to sleep. We all do it. And the important thing to look for is why
you're doing that. Because that can help you
find the right solution. And there might be things
you can do it other areas that can help this, e.g. I. Recently found that I was
putting off going to bed because I felt like I hadn't had enough meat time in the day. So what I did was
re-prioritize so that I could get my knee time without having to stay up late and
compromise my sleep. Or maybe you've got too much to do and your
days and you're staying up late to try and finish all the things
on your to-do list. Is there anything that can be delegated or crossed off the list and left
for another day. Do all those tasks
absolutely need to get done because sleep
is also a priority. So it's about balancing
those things. Because if you stay up late tonight to finish those things, chances are you wouldn't be
very productive tomorrow. Next, create a relaxin
pre bedtime routine. This doesn't have to be long, but long enough for
your body to get the signal that
it's time for rest. So it could include things
like having a warm bath, drinking at night time, t, reading a book, listening
to sleep sounds, practicing some
mindfulness during a particular skincare routine, or during a brain
dump to get all of our thoughts and feelings out
of our head before sleep. Try and unplug an
hour before sleep, as well as light from screens. It also keeps our mind avoid
stimulants before asleep. By this, I mean things
like caffeine or alcohol. The amount of time
this needs will vary from person to person. Now, I'm very sensitive, so any for me is enough to
keep me awake at night, but you will be able to work
out what is right for you. Many people actually think
alcohol helps them sleep, but whilst it might make
you feel a little bit drowsy initially and help
you drift off to sleep. It can actually lead to poor quality sleep and a
lighter, more restless night. I'm an act of self-care
could be switching to a different drink after a certain time of
day or altogether. In the area of sleep. There's a lot of
building habits and routines that will help
you on an ongoing basis. But if you find just off with any extra time in the evening, you might be able to complete
some activities that will help you prepare for
sleep as well as sleep. I think it's important
to emphasize the need to take breaks and to rest
throughout your day. It's not only
something we need to prioritize in the evening. Sometimes we get a
spare five-minutes, a bit of free time, and
we think we have to chronic fall of
something productive. But rest is productive. And I think it's good to normalize that and
to acknowledge it, you might want it to
take a few moments to take some deep breaths. This can help calm and
nervous system and prevent the buildup of stress and the impact this has on the body. Next, I want to talk
about nutrition and some examples of things
you could do in this area. So things like making
sure you're having enough water fuel in your
body with fresh ingredients. Taking the time to prepare and nourishing
meal for yourself, something that will
make you feel good. Just doing that for yourself as an act of self-care and showing yourself you're worthy of taking the time to prepare
that for yourself. Or you could spend some time searching for
some new healthy recipes. If you find that you struggle to cook healthy food
on a regular basis, you can try and prepare some
ingredients in advance, some meal prep so that you've
got things on hand that you can quickly grab throughout the week or at busy times. This is helping
your future self. Next, looking at exercise, this is very different for
everyone and I like to think about it as just
getting your body moving. So it could be a formal
type of exercise. We would think of like running, going to the gym or
playing a sport. Or it could involve
doing things for fun that get your body moving, such as gardening or putting on some music and
dancing around the house. We are very prone to an impromptu kitchen
discount when we're cooking dinner and it's a fun way to get your body moving after you've
been sat down all day. One of the best and
easiest things I think you can do is
just go for a walk, get outside in the fresh air, even if it's just for a
quick walk around the block. Just getting in the fresh air, having a change of scenery
and getting that break and getting your body moving is
really, really good for you, particularly if you spend a
lot of time sitting during the day and also just taking a few moments to
stand and stretch, then there is the pamper
time we talked about. So partaking in a little bit of indulgence and relaxation. This is where there's
beauty treatments could be a nourishing part
of our self-care. So could you have a massage
to help and aching body? Could you spend some
time on skincare or painting your nails if this helps you feel
more put together. Another simple
thing we can do is take a long bath or shower. The bath or shower is often one of the only uninterrupted time. So we have an odd day. So slowing that down, being more mindful
and seeing it as an opportunity for relaxation can be really rewarding
rather than just seeing it as another chill
on my list of things to do. And finally, make sure
you're up-to-date on any appointments related
to your physical health, is there a phone
call you need to make that you haven't
got around to making make sure
you make time for those things and promote
your physical health. And join me in the next
lesson where we're going to be exploring
emotional well-being.
5. Emotional Wellness: In the last lesson, we looked at physical wellness and how we
can take care of our body. And in this lesson, we're
going to be exploring emotional well-being and
focusing more on the mind. When we think about
emotional wellness, it covers a lot of things like how we feel
about ourselves, how we manage our emotions, and how we're able to cope with life's challenges is focused on understanding and
respecting our feelings, values, and opinions. And for those of us who have
mental health conditions, managing that is an aspect too. I've been often talked about in this area is practicing
mindfulness. Mindfulness is about
focusing our attention on the present moment rather than ruminating on the past or
thinking about the future. I find that it helps to think
about the five senses when trying to practice
mindfulness to really ground yourself
in the moment. So what can you see? Hear, taste, touch, and smell, really tune into those. And you'll likely notice things that you would
have otherwise missed. It's also good to
use mindfulness to check in with your
mind and body. So ask yourself questions like, how am I feeling? Is there something I feel
like I need right now? This might bring up
needs and other areas. You might find that
you've overlooked a physical need or that you're feeling
disconnected from others. As I said, with physical health, you might want to practice
some deep breathing. This can help calm
your nervous system and bring you back to
the present moment, which is also good for
your emotional well-being. I also recommend practicing
self-compassion. So if you're experiencing
something challenging, trying to think to yourself, what would I say to a friend
right now in this situation? And then take the same
approach with yourself. And you'll find that you're
treating yourself with much more kindness than you
might otherwise have done. Also acknowledge your
feelings and just acknowledge that whatever
you're feeling is okay, and whatever you're
feeling is normal. It's all part of being human and we all
struggle with things. There are a number of
different areas to think about when it comes to
emotional wellness. And this can be approached
in a number of ways. Some people choose to use
journaling to approach this. And that might be journaling
on the day's events, What's happened that day and your current thoughts
and feelings. Or it might be using
journal prompts to explore particular areas which
I'll come to in a moment, journal and isn't for you. You might choose
to watch videos, listen to podcasts, or read
a book on these topics. You might simply sit and have
time with your thoughts. You might reach
out to a friend or family member to speak to
you about these topics. Or you might seek help
from a professional. So what could these areas be? It could be things like questioning your
limiting beliefs. So any thoughts we hold
about ourselves that are actually holding us back
and knocking our confidence. Working on self-acceptance,
accepting ourselves as we are in challenging any negative self-talk
about ourselves. So thinking about things
you like about yourself, your achievements and things
that you're proud of. Spending time thinking
about things that are contributing to
our stress levels. I'm thinking whether
there's anything we can do to try and alleviate that, or forgiving yourself for past mistakes or forgiving
others for this. Now these are just some examples and there are a whole host
of general prompts out there that can help you explore different areas to do with
your emotional well-being. A quick search will
bring up lots of suggestions and you can choose the ones that
feel right for you. You can also practice
gratitude for the things you already have in your life that bring you joy and
give it meaning. These could be people,
things, experiences, even the simplest
things in your day like hearing your
favorite song, DO, or seen a little bird land on the window ledge is something we can be grateful for
and it's great to take some time to
acknowledge those things. As I said in the lesson
on physical wellness, it's good to make sure you're up-to-date with
any appointments. And the same applies for
your emotional well-being. Having seen a professional about your emotional well-being and you need to schedule
a follow-up. Or perhaps this is
something you'd like to think about doing in the future and you want to read more about that or to
arrange something, it's important to
follow up and do those things that will
help your future self. So that's it for now on
emotional well-being. But in the next lesson, join me to talk about
social wellness.
6. Social Wellness: In the last lesson, we explored different things we could do to help our emotional well-being. And in this lesson,
we're going to be exploring the social
domain of wellness. Social wellness is
all about feeling connected to others and
having a sense of belonging. It's about developing
and maintaining healthy relationships and
enjoying time with others. Having a support network
of people around you can really help you across all
areas of your self-care. The obvious
activities, I think in this area are making
sure that you're devoting time to maintain the relationships in your life that are really
important to you. It might involve sending someone a message to let them know
you're thinking about them, giving them a call
for a catch-up, planning an activity
with someone, or to go and see them. Really making sure
you're spending quality time with the
people that you care about. Contributing to
your community in some way can also help you
feel connected to others. Could be a great way
of meeting new people to perhaps joining a club or organization that can give you regular social interaction
or supporting local causes. This doesn't have
to be in person. It could involve online
activity as a way to connect with others with similar interests
or experiences. E.g. I've previously blogged about a health condition that
I have as a way to connect with others with similar
experiences as well as sharing my learning physical connection with others can also help. So can you go and
hug a loved one or can you take time to play
with and stroke a pet? So I have regular cuddle
breaks with my dog Maggie, and it helps me feel really
connected to as well as me injury and the sensory benefits
from striking heifer, spread some kindness to others. So can we go and pay
someone a compliment? Can you leave a nice
note for someone to find the it's someone
you know or a stranger. Can you carry out
some random act of kindness or small act of
kindness to somebody. These are all things that
help other people know that we care and it deepens
our connection with them. Now whilst encouraging
social connection, It's important that you surround yourself with the
right types of people. So people with the
same values as you and he'll leave you
feeling good about yourself. If you find yourself
always feeling negative after being
around certain people, and it might be appropriate
to distance yourself a bit from those people to protect
your emotional well-being, it's important to set
healthy boundaries on what is and isn't okay
from other people. And to protect your
time and space, to give you the time you need to focus on all aspects
of your self care, not just our
emotional well-being. So setting boundaries can
be a really important part of our social self care that
we don't often think about. It's not always easy to do, but practicing it in small ways over time can make it easier. And it really is
important that you prioritize your needs
and well-being. So similarly to feeling negative after being around
certain people, how do you feel about the
social media you consume? Are there certain people
you follow that make you feel negative or
bad about yourself? Because if there are,
maybe it's time to hit the Follow button
or the mute button or just type them
for a little while. Because we want to
be taken in things that leave us feeling
good about ourselves. So these are some
aspects to think about in terms of social self-care. But join me in the next
lesson when I'm going to talk about meaning
focused self-care.
7. Adding Meaning: This lesson is all
about what I'm terming meaning
focused self-care. We've explored
physical, emotional, and social self care. And in this lesson we're
gonna be talking about those things that
provide purpose, value, and meaning in your life. Going back to reflection, which we talked about in the lesson on
emotional self-care. There are lots of
things you can think about to help you in this area. And again, you might
choose a journal, watch videos, read books, listen to podcasts, time
thinking about these things, or talk it through with
someone else you care about. So try and reflect on what it is that's important to
you in your life. What type of person
do you want to be? What qualities are important? What are your values, and why are they
important to you? Then consider how you
can start to add more of these things that feel important
to you into your life. What can you do to dedicate
more time to them? Now there are probably obstacles that are going
to get in your way. So think about what these
obstacles are and what you can do to try and overcome them when you know what's
important to you, self-care can include
participating in activities that are in line
with your values and beliefs and the adenine life. These might be things
you do already and you want to carry them out
on an ongoing basis. Maybe make some
more time for them. Or it might involve exploring
or trying new things. You could visit and
explore new places. There might be places locally
you haven't yet discovered, or you haven't yet tried, or you might penetrate
further afield. Be curious about
things there are to learn and expand your
knowledge when you challenge yourself to learn
new things or take part in activities that are creatively
or mentally stimulating. This can lead to
better concentration, improved memory, and better
critical thinking skills. This can involve
things like reading. During challenging puzzles
such as crosswords or Sudoku. Debated issues with
others who have opposing viewpoints or learning a new language or
musical instrument, you could try new
hobbies or interests. I have a whole skill share
class on discovery on tap passions and discovering what is at the root of
the things you enjoy. So that you can apply that
to other things and find a whole host of new things that you might like
to enjoy to try it. So I'll leave that linked
in the class description. And while you're learning
these three things, consider how you could share
that knowledge with others. This might involve
some form of teaching, like teaching something to
a friend or family member, or even creating your
own Skillshare class. Related to this is the
idea of participating in work that is consistent
with your values and goals. That provides personal
satisfaction and enriches your life and contributing
your unique gifts, skills, and talents to something that feels
personally rewarding. Now this could involve
paid employment, but it does not have to. It will differ depending
on what your values are and what your priorities are in life at this current moment. Things it could include or focusing on your
role as a parent, guardian a child
and teaching them the values that you personally
think are important. It could include sharing your
knowledge as we discussed, or it could include
voluntary projects or finding a way to support a
cause that's important to you. An example from
my life that I've mentioned is that
a few years ago I found myself in
a position where I wasn't able to work
due to health reasons. And I focus my time learning what I could about
my health condition and then sharing that
knowledge with others that might be experiencing the
same thing through a blog. I wrote it in person online. Often we focus on career as a thing that gives our
life purpose or meaning. Absolutely can. But at that time of life, that isn't something
I was able to do. And so carrying out
those activities helped me to find a different
meaning and purpose. I also focused on exploring creative activities
and trying new things. And alongside working
on my physical, emotional, and social wellness, these activities all
really helped me create an overall sense of well-being and boosted
my self-esteem. We've explored the full
dimensions of self-care. And in the next lesson we're going to look through
those now that you've made and I'll support
you to put together your own personalized
self-care menu.
8. 08 scm: We've explored the four domains of wellness and you've made some notes on things
you'd like to try it for your own self-care. And the items on
your brand story can be divided into two types. The first are habits that you might want to try and
implement over time. These might be
things like going to bed at a consistent
time each night, drinking a certain
amount of water per day, or reading your book before bed. And then you will
have activities which will be the basis of
your self-care menu. Now you might want to
color code these to make it easier for you
at the next stage. So just take two
different colored markers and color-code, the ones that lend
themselves better to habits, and the ones that are more
like one-off activities. I'm going to support
you with putting those activities into
a self-care menu. But I would suggest you write out your list of
habits you would like to implement and focus on
implementing these over time. Often we can overwhelm
ourselves with trying to implement too
many things in one go. So it might be better to pick one or two things and
focus on those at first. And then when they are
starting to become more of a routine and a habit, then you would start
adding more things in. Something I quite
like to do is use a habit tracker to help me
stay on track with that, particularly when I'm trying
to implement new things. And it's not necessarily a
habit for me to do that. So I would write them out
on my habit tracker and then just tick them off as
I've done them each day. So we'll come back to
focusing on our activities that will form the basis
of our self-care menu. And you're going
to do little bits of color-coding to put
them into categories. The first is color-coding them by what domain of
self-care they relate to. Now some of these might relate
to more than one category. So I would suggest putting
them in a category you have less activity
to choose from. Or if they seem to lend themselves more to
one than another, then I'll put them in there. So you want to split
them into physical, emotional, social, and meaning. Then the second category is how much time the
activity will take you. Now, you can come
up with a set of times that works better for
you and your lifestyle. But for my example, I'm going to use the
following 5 min, 30 min, 1 h, half a day and a full day. So I'm going to
create myself a key and then go down the
list and mark them depending on whether I could get the activity done
in that amount of time. And then we're ready
to create the menu. As I said in the lesson
on the class project, you want this to be a
quick reference tools so that when you find
yourself with time available, you can see what activities you could get done in that
time and choose from one depending on what
domain you feel you need to focus on is
a good idea to check in with how you're feeling at that particular time because you might be drawn more
to one area than another. But it's also a good idea
to make sure that you are balancing your
self-care over time. You'll choose in activities from all the
different categories so that you're getting a
really holistic approach to your self-care plan. So I'll show you some examples so you can see what
you're aiming for. You may wish to go completely functional and do
a simple table. You may want to do something
more decorative and play with stickers
or art supplies. Or you may want to produce
something digitally. Now it's up to you how
you put this together. But if you're not
sure where to start, maybe you're feeling a
little bit overwhelmed, or maybe you just
haven't got hours to spend on creating
a masterpiece. Then I have produced
a template that you can use or I've linked it in the class
description for you. So you can either this digitally and then print it
off when you're finished, or simply print it off
and fill it in by hand, whether you want
to have fun with it or keep it more practical. The most important
thing is that you have a handful of
activities in each of the boxes so that you can maximize the amount of
time we have available for self-care and
focus on bringing more awareness to the
different areas of your life. So have fun putting together
your self-care menu. There is no right or wrong. This is personal to you. And I will see you in the next lesson where we'll
talk about next steps.
9. Next Steps: Congratulations for
completing this class. You've dedicated the time to learning more about self-care. And that shows a real
commitment to yourself, which is an act of self-care
in itself that you devoted this time
to thinking about what practices you are
going to introduce. Now have a list of habits that you'd like to
introduce overtime. And you have your self-care
menu tool you can use over and over again to add
more self-care into your life. I'd recommend putting your menu somewhere you can see it or keeping it within
easy reach so you can quickly grab it
when you need to. And also to make
sure you're picking activities from across
the different domains. So you're getting that
full balanced approach. This isn't static. Remember that you'll need some priorities will change
over time just as you will. So it's a good idea to
come back and revisit this exercise from time-to-time
and update your menu. If there's one thing I
want you to take away from this class is the self-care does not have to be complicated. And even the simplest
of activities can have a really significant
impact on your well-being. Upload your completed
self-care money to the project gallery. I would love to see
what you've come up with and it can be a
really good source of inspiration for other students to please leave me a review
for the class if you can, because it provides me with really valuable feedback
so I can continue making good quality cost is for you and it helps other
students to find the class. Following my own journey. I've been on Instagram
and YouTube. And don't forget to
check out my website. Plan, inspire create.com,
which is full of items to bring positive self care reminders
to your every day. You can find all the details in the cost description and best of luck on the subcu journey, I would love to hear
how you're getting on. Take care.
Emma, Helping people live happier & healthier
