Ladies, self-care is you doing you. Ignoring signs of fatigue, tiredness, burnout, stress and other negative energies means you’re not putting yourself first; By doing this, you’re telling yourself you don’t matter. You do. Creating a self-care regime or schedule allows you to allocate the necessary time for yourself in order to nurture your personal well-being.  

The 4 Dimensions of Self-Care 

1. Physical self-care – Is ensuring you have an overall healthy lifestyle.  

• Ensure you get enough sleep each night to allow mental and physical recharge. This is so you’re able to have optimal performance on a day-to-day basis.
• Of course, you need to have a well-balanced, nutritious diet. It’s important we are implementing all different food groups into our meals in order to refuel our bodies in the best way.
• Get your body moving. Don’t believe you have to spend hours in the gym to be ‘actively fit’, because going for a nature walk is one of the greatest things you can do for your physical self-care. Dance, go to a yoga class or even have a good house clean. Get that blood pumping through your body!  

2. Emotional self-care – Is the relationship you have with yourself and others.  

• Living in alignment with your values & beliefs & setting clear boundaries to respect your emotional needs. 
• Create boundaries for yourself and stick to them; Only accept things you know you want to do and the things you know you have the capacity for. 
• Set yourself time to do what you enjoy, completely switch off and be with yourself and your simple pleasures. You need time and space to process and enjoy life.
• Create a vision board for your goals and dreams. Firstly, being creative is good for the soul, creating a vision board of all the things you want the most gives you a real good motivational boost. 

2. Emotional self-care – Is the relationship you have with yourself and others.  

• Living in alignment with your values & beliefs & setting clear boundaries to respect your emotional needs. 
• Create boundaries for yourself and stick to them; Only accept things you know you want to do and the things you know you have the capacity for. 
• Set yourself time to do what you enjoy, completely switch off and be with yourself and your simple pleasures. You need time and space to process and enjoy life.
• Create a vision board for your goals and dreams. Firstly, being creative is good for the soul, creating a vision board of all the things you want the most gives you a real good motivational boost. 

3. Psychological self-care – Is ultimately about self-development. What are you consuming and filling your mind with? 

• Discover topics that interest you and develop this. Pick something that interests you or you’ve wanted to learn more about and search the web, read books or even listen to podcasts around that topic. Grow your knowledge.
• Brain training: There are so many puzzles or games you can access that will get your brain ticking over and active. 
• On social media, are you mindlessly wasting time? Track your usage & secondly, be mindful of who and what you follow. Make sure you’re consuming content that’s aligned with you and your happiness. 

4. Spiritual self-care – Is Mindfulness, gratitude and inner peace. 

• Start journaling. This creates a personal diary of your self-reflection, experiences, gratitude and your day-to-day life, allowing you to keep track of any struggles/triggers. 
• Start your very own meditation journey, which isn’t just sitting down and humming. Mindfulness will allow you to be present and calm, whilst connecting you to your thoughts and feelings. It’s really a great way to start a day and a whole new way of life. 
• Reconnect with nature: you don’t have to go around hugging trees, unless you really want to... Go and ground yourself underneath the trees (there’s a thing called forest bathing) or get down to a beach and enjoy the coast. Whatever the weather, being outdoors and getting some fresh air is a necessity for everyday health. 

As I mentioned earlier on, self-care is all about you and what your mind and body needs. It doesn’t need to be difficult and it doesn’t have to cost a penny. You have unlimited access to resources that can assist your self-care schedule. Self-care somewhat takes a level of accountability and discipline as we don’t often prioritise ourselves, you don’t need to wait for burnout or sickness to start. Make self-care part of your daily/weekly and monthly lifestyle.  

Start now, do one thing to get you started. Set a reminder on your phone or a reoccurring date on the email diary and see what happens.