Your Self-Care Plan Needs More Balance
By: Rachael Kable
Tags: Health, Self Care, Mental Health, Lifestyle, Self

Your Self-Care Plan Needs More Balance

Here’s a simple system that’ll help.

Photo courtesy of Rachael Kable

A wide variety of self-care activities can boost and protect your overall wellbeing. Physical self-care activities can support your immune system and help you feel both energized and well-rested. Mental self-care activities can promote resilience, relaxation, and a positive mindset. And self-care activities for social health can help you feel connected, supported, and less stressed.

Not to mention a variety of other potential components of wellbeing, like emotional, spiritual, environmental, and financial!

But what happens when you don’t have enough hours in the day to implement the self-care activities that matter most to you?

You might end up with an imbalanced self-care routine that improves one or two areas of your wellbeing and neglects the rest.

That’s why a balanced self-care plan can be useful. It allows you to prioritize your essential self-care activities and maintain optimal wellbeing across a range of areas in your life.

The Balanced Self-Care Plan

This basic self-care plan features at least two daily activities for physical, mental, and social health. However, other types of health might be important to you, too, so feel free to adjust this plan as needed.

Other types of self-care activities you might like to include in your daily plan could revolve around your emotional, environmental, spiritual, financial, and occupational health. Experiment and tweak your activities until you find the right fit for you. That’s the beauty of developing your own plan — you can base it on your unique wants and needs.

Now, let’s dive into a basic balanced self-care plan.

Physical health

Each day, try aiming for two small self-care activities that boost your physical wellbeing. For example, some physical self-care activities I enjoy include:

Doing gentle stretches after working at my computer

Drinking plenty of water

Going to bed around 9 pm so I can get enough sleep

Exercising

Getting a dose of natural light

Eating nutritious foods

Each day, I prioritize doing at least two of these physical self-care activities to help take care of my body, but I usually end up doing more. Physical health can be particularly important because it helps to create a good foundation for many other things in life.

In 1943, a psychologist named Abraham Maslow proposed a theory called Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, humans have five different levels of needs. The needs lower down in the hierarchy generally have to be achieved before the needs towards the top of the hierarchy can be attended.

In a nutshell, the first level of needs are physiological. Our bodies require food, water, rest, and warmth to survive. The next level of needs are all about establishing safety and security. Then we move on to love and belonging, which means develop friendships or intimate relationships. The next level of needs are esteem needs, like independence, achievement, and status. And the final level of needs revolves around self-actualization — seeking personal growth and fulfilling our potential.

According to this theory, we must tend to our basic physiological needs, which means consuming enough food and water, getting enough sleep, and being warm enough. If these needs are regularly unfulfilled, it can be tough to achieve anything else.

And that’s why physical self-care is super important! It creates a strong foundation, so we have the energy, motivation, and capacity to thrive in other areas.

Mental health

Try implementing at least two simple self-care activities each day that promote good mental health. Depending on how much time you have, these activities could be long and luxurious or short and sweet!

For example, you could set up a calming atmosphere of aromatic candles, dim lights, and indoor plants, then do a mindfulness meditation for half an hour by tuning into your senses. Or, you could simply take five deep breaths whenever you notice yourself starting to feel overwhelmed by your to-do list.

You could write a few pages in a journal and vent all your thoughts and feelings, or you could quickly jot down three things you’re grateful for at the end of the day.

Other self-care activities that can protect your mental health include a mindful walk, gardening, spending time in nature, practicing self-compassion, engaging in creative activities, or creating positive affirmations.

Social health

As human beings, our social connections are hugely important. Research has found that chronic social isolation increases the risk of anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, heart disease, poor sleep quality, and diabetes.

In 1972, Michael Siffre, a French geologist, adventurer, and scientist, spent six months in an underground cave to learn more about human internal biological clocks. His experiences in isolation had a profound effect on his mental and physical health. Towards the end of the experiment, Siffre became despairing and depressed. His memory deteriorated and, desperate for company, he reportedly tried to make friends with a mouse.

Years after the experiment, Siffre apparently still suffered from memory lapses, poor eyesight, and what he described as “inexplicable psychological wounds.”

There were probably multiple reasons for Siffre’s physical and mental decline, including lack of sunlight and sensory stimulation, but social disconnection may have also played a big role. Other studies have since found that chronic social isolation is associated with cognitive decline, particularly learning and memory.

Social wellbeing can be surprisingly important, which is why I aim to complete at least two self-care activities each day that supports it. For example, I’ll have a mindful conversation with my partner, call a friend, catch up with a family member for a cup of tea, leave a nice comment on social media, or cuddle my dogs. Sometimes, I enjoy just being around other people, even if we’re not interacting that much. When I was writing The Mindful Kind book, I spent quite a bit of time working on my computer in cafes just to feel less lonely.

The Balanced Self-Care Plan (in a nutshell)

You might like to try this version of The Balanced Self-Care Plan yourself. It involves two self-care activities for physical health, mental health, and social health. And, of course, you can incorporate other forms of self-care that support your emotional, spiritual, environmental, financial, or occupational wellbeing.

If you’re keen to implement self-care, but you’re not sure where to start, check out my free online mini course, Self-Care For Busy People! You’ll discover short and practical videos about breathing techniques, fast journaling methods, and mindfulness. Plus, I’ll guide you through a 5-minute self-care routine from start to finish!