Every Sunday is Self-Care Sunday here at Nuts and Crackers. But what exactly does it mean to self-care? Is it taking a rest, a vacation, meditating, working out, reading a book?

Well, according to this article from the Health Coach Institute, there are seven types of self-care:

• Emotional self-care
• Physical self-care
• Mental self-care
• Social self-care
• Spiritual self-care
• Practical self-care
• Professional self-care

After reading about each of these, it makes perfect sense that these would all apply to our overall physical and mental wellness. And these seven types may mean different things to different people. Here’s how it breaks down for me:

Emotional Self-Care
• Pretending to be more patient with people who get on my nerves. (I’m not naturally patient).
• Stop to smell the flowers (for real, not just a metaphor)
• Be okay with crying at some corny romcom I claim to not enjoy.

Physical Self-Care
• Get my lazy butt moving and doing some more walking and weight lifting
• Do not be ashamed to take a nap when I can
• Remember to do the tai chi I raved about in a previous post

Mental Self-Care
• Give my brain a rest. Yea, that’s it, I overthink everything

Social Self-Care
• Keep up my social walks with friends
• Don’t give up trying to get with friends who are busy (and keep emotional self-care by not getting upset when it repeatedly doesn’t work out)
• Volunteer. A great way to meet people and do something good for the community

Spiritual Self-Care
• Admit I’m REALLY lazy about this one
• Go to church on Sunday, not just for the sermon, but the socialization.
• Keep my peace knowing God is in this with me and I need to stop being such a control freak!

Practical Self-Care
• Stop procrastinating my room organizing I keep saying I’m going to do.
• Meal prep. Always easier to eat healthy when it’s less work.
• Keep better track of my finances so I’m not broke when I retire (at the age of 75).

Professional Self-Care
• Keep job hunting.
• Will have a longer list once I’m finally employed again.

Whether you choose to do all seven self-care practices, or just one, please choose to do something! There’s way too much going on this world for us to neglect our health and wellness.

Or as the author, and alcoholic in recovery, Augusten Burroughs once said,

“When you have your health, you have everything. When you do not have your health, nothing else matters at all.”

Take care. ❤️