Self-care is making yourself a priority. Is that selfish? Absolutely not!! And I will tell you why!
Self-care is simply the practice of taking care of oneself to promote health and wellbeing. This could be through behavior or acts. In other words, the acts that we take for ourselves to develop, protect, maintain, and improve our health is what we call self-care.
Self-care is telling yourself that you matter and are of value.
In university students, self-care not only benefits the mind and soul but also the body, and it has been linked to improved academic outcomes. Self-care is all to do with making yourself the priority over anything or anybody else. Remember your degree is important BUT YOU are importanter (if that was a word). You can pause your studies and return to them but can’t pause your wellbeing and return to it.
Self-care is all to do with making yourself the priority over anything or anybody else.
Why is Self-Care good for you?
Self-care increases positive thinking and relieves you from stress, anxiety and depression
It gives greater control over your health and will improve your mental and physical health.
It’s linked to improved academic outcomes
It promotes healthy behaviors that help to prevent long-term ill health and complications.
Self-care brings about a positive feeling, which helps to boost your confidence/self-esteem
By practicing it, you are telling yourself “I am valuable, I am deserving and worthy”
If promotes elf improvement
It will enable you to take care of others in a better way
You will become more productive
Although practicing it has a lot of benefits, it can be challenging especially for university students because they are inundated with too much stuff to do and not enough time.
21 Self-Care Tips for University Students
- Maintain a healthful living style – good food, stay hydrated, keep active
- Engage in amusing activities
- Avoid drinking excessively – alcohol that is!
- Avoid drugs – even if they give you temporary benefits
- Ignoring people is self-care
- Forgiving your old self for putting up with all the stuff you didn’t deserve.
- Ghosting social media – ignoring all those police brutality videos circulated on twitter
- Using social media – blocking, muting, ignoring is self-care.
- Not letting toxic people back in your life
- Being selfish by thinking of yourself first
- Bing private is self-care
- Avoiding people who lower your vibe
- Determining not to argue with those who are committed to misunderstanding you.
- Avoiding those who love to play the victim and make you out to be the villain
- Being picky about who has access to your space.
- Removing yourself from situations where you don’t feel loved, appreciated, and respected
- Beauty hygiene – pedicure, manicure, haircut, makeup.
- Shopping – buying yourself self-something nice
- Being sincere to yourself about your mistakes and wrongs.
- Walking away from abusive relationships -whether it’s family or partners
- Listen to your thoughts and preferences, agree with your self – don’t fight them.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Don’t try to do it all at once, one at a time, be patient with yourself.
When you practice self-care, you are not simply self-indulging but are rather preserving yourself. Don’t just be good to others for goodness’ sake, be good to yourself too. Learn to pour into yourself and invest in yourself fiercely, consistently, and intentionally.
Last thoughts
Of course, the list is not exhaustive. Here is the key; find what makes you happy then do it again and again. Identify what you think will make you happy and give it a good go. Little actions of self-care can have a big impact on the brain. Self-care plays a key role in maintaining good mental health. The world is difficult as it is, and it needs the best version of you not what’s left of you, and self-care makes you the best version of yourself.
Remember choosing to ignore self-care could mean you are self-neglecting. And often what follows self-neglect are bigger problems like burnout and ill-health. It is the antidote to burnout. So, whenever you feel burnout setting in, if you feel dispirited and exhausted, for the sake of yourself and everyone, it is best to withdraw and restore yourself first.
It’s so encouraging to see that self-care has become far more recognized and championed than it’s typically been in the past. It’s vital to our health and well-being — great post!
Absolutely and my goal is to get to the point where it comes naturally, ingrained in me. Thanks for the comments.
Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon every day. Its always exciting to read articles from other authors and use something from other sites.
Thanks very much