Although self-care is becoming far more popular in recent years, there’s still some negative stigma associated with doing things for ourselves. This is a huge problem, because if we can’t view caring for ourselves in a positive light, chances are we will fail to maintain our health and well-being to the best of our ability. 

This matters way more than you might think. Whenever we let our well-being get pushed to the backburner, our energy depletes, and we potentially compromise our ability to do other important things in our life (such as caring for others or working towards our goals).

If you’ve ever faced burnout, you know exactly what I’m talking about. 

In my life, I have a lot of wonderfully selfless friends. The kind of people who would take the shirt off their back for complete strangers who need a hand. They’re definitely the kind of good hearts and kind souls I want in my life, but I also hate seeing how exhausted and depleted they often feel when they give so much. 

To be clear, I don’t think they give too much. In fact, I think they might be able to give more if they wanted to, but only if they gave more to themselves first. 

What I want for my friends more than anything in the world is to see them consistently fill their own cups, so they can fill other cups from the overflow. 

Instead of seeing their energy go from empty, to half full, to empty again, I want to see the people I love take such good care of themselves that they avoid feeling empty altogether. 

Now, I’m writing this post because I want the same for you. I want you to feel full more often, and I want you to feel no shame or guilt about caring for yourself. Because the truth is, if you care for yourself, your capacity to do good in this world will increase exponentially (and it’ll be far less draining!)

What is Self-Care Really About?

Unlike what some might think, self-care is NOT self-indulgent in nature. It’s simply healthy and responsible. 

According to a medically reviewed article by licensed Counselling Psychologist Raphailia Michael, “Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health… In a few words, self-care is the key to living a balanced life.”

In other words, self-care isn’t about pampering yourself. It’s much more basic, functional, and rational. It’s about helping yourself get closer to the person you want to be and gaining stability in the way you feel about yourself and your life. 

When done right, self-care helps us increase the amount of balance, vitality, satisfaction, and peace we experience in our lives.

And as we achieve those things for ourselves, it is truly amazing how much we increase our capacity to help other people reach those positive outcomes too. 

The other nice thing about self-care is that when you do what you need to do to facilitate balance (and the other things listed above) in your own life, there is very little anyone else can do to take them away from you.

How do I Choose Effective Activities for Self-Care? 

As mentioned above, literally anything you do to maintain your health and happiness qualifies as self-care. But if you’re still not sure about what kinds of things you should do to optimize your own self-care activities, here’s some basic criteria you should look for while deciding. 

Self-care activities should…

• Improve your relationship with yourself (an improved relationship with yourself might involve: a kinder/quieter inner critic, feeling more comfortable in your own skin and body, or getting to know yourself better.)
• Improve or maintain your mental, emotional, or physical health
• Help you feel more capable, balanced, or happy.
• Make life more bearable and/or more enjoyable overall

An Easy Way to Integrate More Effective Self-Care into Your Life

Self-care can easily fall under the radar if you don’t have a plan for how you’re going to make your well-being a priority. 

So, I’ve created a beautiful and easy-to-use Self-Care Tracker exclusively for Self Love Atlas Subscribers. The Tracker is specifically designed to be flexible for any lifestyle. It is printable, digitally fillable, easy to understand, and you’ll have access to the download forever! So just downloading the Tracker will give you a simple way to record your self-care indefinitely. 

This resource also includes clear directions for how to use it, a filled out example tracker, and a list of self-care ideas you can use to help with filling out your own tracker. You’ll have complete freedom to select and fill in your own tasks based on your needs and preferences, so you can make this tracker work for you!

If you accessed this post from your email, then you’ve already received the printable/fillable tracker in your inbox. But if you’re not a subscriber yet, then sign up here to get immediate access to the SLA Self-Care Tracker. Subscribing doesn’t cost anything, and the resources are 100% FREE!

Check out the resource, and let me know what you think :). I’m really hoping this can be the beginning of improved well-being for everyone involved. If there’s any other resources you’d like to see to help with self-care on this blog, just let me know, and I’ll work on making it happen for you <3.

One Final Note: It’s okay to care for ourselves imperfectly.

I noticed it’s common for people to get discouraged if they miss a day of the habits they’re trying to form. But every day you do something to care for your well-being counts, so there needn’t be guilt or judgement on days you miss.

Every time you do it, no matter how many days you miss, it is a good thing. So if you plan to drink water every day and miss a day, don’t beat yourself up. If your goal is to drink more water and you drank more water in a week than you had in the past, then you’re doing amazing. 

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Did this post resonate with you? If so, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment or send me a message to share your thoughts. For more uplifting content, check out some other posts on my blog, follow me on instagram @morgan_barbret, or sign up for the Self Love Atlas Newsletter!

Cheers, 

Morgan Rita Barbret