Self-Care: The Missing Link to Success?

Self-care, like its name suggests, is spending time to take care of your emotional, physical and mental well-being. One would think that this is obvious and yet, millions of people neglect themselves and struggle through lives.

The current situation
The busy stay-at-home mom spends almost all of her time looking after the kids, keeping the house clean and cooking the meals. She’s so busy looking after everybody else, that she has no time to look after herself.
Over time, she becomes frazzled, tired and depressed. It’s almost like she’s a martyr for her family.
In the same vein, the man who works long hours to provide for the family but is rarely home to spend time with them is stressed out, constantly thinking about the bills and work… and can’t remember the last time he did something he enjoyed.

Calm Your Anxiety

What does a lack of self-care cost you?
We’re all human and need a break. If you don’t spend time on self-care, it’s inevitable to become unhappy, depressed and dissatisfied.

It can even cost you everything. The busy man who doesn’t take time to care for his health might end up overweight. The frazzled housewife with no time for herself may have panic attacks.
There will be a negative impact to one’s health if one doesn’t spend time on himself/herself. This will affect all areas of your life.

Your work will suffer. Your family life will suffer. Your moods, optimism, goals, etc. will all be adversely affected when you put yourself in last place. Achieving success in life becomes much more difficult now.

Self-care is not a topic that’s often discussed, but it’s crucial to success. Some men may even feel it’s emasculating to talk about self-care, and very often these are the men who need it the most.

This is neither a masculine nor feminine issue. Self-care is about looking after yourself so that you’re not ravaged by the stresses of life. This often happens unknowingly when we’re so caught up with life that we neglect ourselves for too long.

When the stress catches up to us, it’s often very late and you end up feeling depressed and unhappy. So, you must practice self-care early.
What does self-care mean to you?
There’s no right or wrong answer here. Self-care is doing what makes you feel happy provided that there are no ill-effects in the long run.

For example, if you love watching comedies, that’s one way to calm your mind and have a laugh. This type of self-care will de-stress you and make you feel better.

However, if you enjoy consuming alcohol, you must be aware that this habit will be deleterious to your health in the long run and is not recommended. At the very least, consume it in moderation.

Choose your method of self-care wisely.

It goes without saying that you MUST watch your diet and exercise often. These are the cornerstones of good health. Self-care in this case will mean eating healthy foods you love. There’s no need to consume chicken breast and broccoli daily… unless you love it.

When it comes to exercise, choose an activity you love. If you enjoy rowing, go ahead and row. You don’t need to lift heavy weights (if you don’t enjoy it), just because everyone else is doing it.

Besides these tips, you may wish to go for massages to feel better. Other stress-relief methods would be doing yoga, meditating, spending time in nature, aromatherapy, etc.

All the different self-care practices are merely means to an end – the end being that you feel good.
Self-care means giving yourself some time to feel better. For the busy mom, it might mean solitude and a day at the spa. For the busy dad, it might mean having a game night with his friends.

Whatever it may be, self-care helps to break the monotony of daily life and gives you a respite from the stress of day-to-day life. This is very important for staying sane in an insane world.

“Self-care is giving the world the best of you, instead of what’s left of you.” – Katie Reed