The 7 Types of Self-Care

Self-care is often used as a buzzword when someone does a face mask or gets their nails done. However, self-care is about so much more than that!

According to perimeter health care, self-care is defined as “a general term that describes everything you do deliberately for your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.”

Sounds easy enough right? Except that self-care is one of the easiest things to push aside unless we make a deliberate effort to put ourselves first.

However, just as the definition states, self-care is also about more than just physical wellbeing (the one people often think of first). Did you know that there are actually 7 types of self-care?

According to the health coach institute, the 7 types are:

1. Emotional self-care

2. Physical self-care

3. Mental self-care

4. Social self-care

5. Spiritual self-care

6. Practical self-care

7. Professional self-care

Emotional Self-Care

Have you ever bottled your feelings up inside? When something made you upset or angry instead of processing those feelings, you decided to ignore them? I know I’ve done this in the past and it has never ended well.

This is why emotional self-care is so important! We need to make time to process and regulate our emotions/thoughts so that we are able to show up as our best selves every day.

Examples of emotional self-care:

1. Journaling

2. Mindfulness exercises/meditation

3. Allow yourself to experience your emotions without judgment or guilt. Allow time to feel and process those emotions

4. Practice positive self talk. Emotional self-care is about how you treat yourself too!

As I mentioned earlier, physical self-care is often the one that people associate with self-care. Physical self-care is when you engage in any activities that help improve your physical wellbeing.

I have neglected physical self-care in the past and can say from experience that physical wellbeing definitely affects mental wellbeing. When I don’t make time to exercise and eat foods that fuel my body, my anxiety can begin to consume me.

Some examples of physical self-care include:

1. Being active- whether that means doing a Beachbody program, taking a walk, or jumping on the trampoline with your kids. Moving your body is such an important form of physical self-care and a way to reduce stress in the body.

2. Doing a face mask, taking a bubble bath or using a body scrub

3. Taking a nap/getting the proper amount of sleep at night- give your body time to rest and renew

4. Get a massage

5. Drink enough water- when you start consuming the correct amount of water, it’s amazing that you can seriously notice a difference in your body without it! If I do not drink enough, I will feel lethargic and unmotivated.

Just take time to engage in activities that help you recenter, relieve stress, and fuel your body.

Mental Self-Care

According to the health coach institute, mental self-care specifically “encompasses anything that you do specifically to stimulate your mind and cultivate a healthy psyche.” In other words, it's the things that you do to help relieve stress and declutter your mind.

Some activities that are considered mental self-care include:

1. Listening to a podcast

2. Reading a book

3. Doing a craft

4. Taking a break from technology!

I seriously recommend taking a break from technology as often as possible. When I find myself feeling overwhelmed and anxious, I often choose to disconnect from my phone, social media, and news outlets. Taking time to be present in your life without distractions is a great reset!

Social Self-Care

When I begin to feel overwhelmed and anxious, often the last thing I feel like doing is getting together with friends or visiting family. However, this is often exactly what I need!

Every time I choose to get together with close friends/family, I leave feeling rejuvenated, grateful, and happy! Social self-care is about exactly that- its how we nurture our relationships with others and how that ultimately gives back to ourselves and our loved ones.

Currently, we are faced with a very unique situation while living through a pandemic. We are being told not to visit with loved ones (and for good reason). But how do we navigate the need for social self-care with the equally critical need to stay socially distant from others?

A few examples of social self-care that I have tried during this time include:

1. Facetime with loved ones. It’s not the same as meeting in person, but it is still nice to be able to see them while having a conversation and better than a regular phone call.

2. Spending time with loved ones outside. That way we can still spend time together just in a safer way.

3. Know when you are willing to take a risk. There have been times that we have chosen to meet with friends inside because I needed a little bit of normalcy and social self-care. We chose to limit these interactions.

4. Planning at-home date nights with your spouse or significant other. This one was a lot of fun! Jesse and I would each take turns coming up with a unique date that we could do from home. Some of our ideas included painting nature scenes, stargazing, and having a fancy dinner at home.

5. Spend time with a pet.

Each person should do what they feel comfortable with for themselves and their families. This is just how my family has chosen to navigate social self-care during this season of our lives.

Spiritual Self-Care

We often associate the word spiritual with religion. However, that is only one form of spiritual self-care. According to the health coach institute, spiritual self-care “encompasses any activities you engage in to connect with or nurture your soul.”

For some, this may look like going to church or engaging in prayer. For others, this could mean taking a walk through the woods or meditating. Ultimately, it's whatever you do to connect with and feel more in tune with your inner self.

Examples of spiritual self-care

1. Spending time in nature

2. Mediating/yoga

3. Praying or attending a church service

4. Volunteering for something you care about

5. Doing anything that inspires you

Practical Self-Care

To be honest, I never really considered practical self-care as a form of self-care. But, I think practical self-care may be one of the types that can actually make a quick impact in your daily life to help reduce stress and anxiety.

Practical self-care is “any actions you take to fulfill your core needs and reduce stress.”

Examples of practical self-care include:

1. Meal prepping for the week

2. Organizing your home

3. Meeting with a financial advisor

4. Creating a budget

5. Having a cleaning schedule

6. Setting up grocery pickup

These are all activities that can make your stress less throughout the week. However, these are things that are meant to help decrease your stress load. Do not add pressure to yourself by thinking that you have to meal prep in order to be successful or that your home has to be super tidy. Just do the things that actually make your life easier and help decrease the unneeded stress from your life.

Professional Self-Care

Professional self-care is “the activities and actions that support feeling balanced and fulfilled in your career.”I feel that professional self-care applies whether you are a stay at home parent or employed outside the workplace. No matter what your job is, it's critical to feel fulfilled so you do not experience burnout later on.

Examples of professional self-care:

1. Use your vacation and sick days. If you are a stay at home parent, find a day throughout the week that you could potentially go out for a little while by yourself. Even if that means just grabbing a coffee and heading home.

2. Make sure you take a lunch break and actually eat! Leave your workspace for a while and take a break.

3. Take courses, read books, connect with mentors, or attend conferences in order to further develop skills and passion for your desired field. A lot of conferences and courses are being held online right now. So it's a great time to check out those resources!

4. Learn to say no to coworkers, bosses, family, etc. Learn to set boundaries when you need to.

As you can see, self-care is not about just physical or mental health! There are many different forms of self-care and each is important for maintaining a balanced/healthy persona. Let me know which suggestions you found helpful!

If you are looking for more ideas be sure to check out the health coach institute article about the 7 types of self-care linked here! This is where I was able to get the inspiration and information for this blog post.