The Importance of Self-Care
The Importance of Self-Care
– Juliana Rodriguez
Valentine’s Day is a time to show the people in your life how much they mean to you, a time to celebrate love. But what about self love and appreciation? Practicing self care can improve one’s relationships with others, their mental and emotional health, and general quality of life. Self care looks different for everyone, so we at Premier have come up with a few practices you might consider trying out.
- Intention Setting: Intentionality and mindfulness can make a huge difference in the way we handle our day to day lives. This Valentine’s Day, decide what you want to do (or not do) for yourself. Make some convictions that honor you. Set an intention for the day, month, or even just the hour. You might decide to move through your day without any judgements of yourself, no matter what might come up, but instead just recognize and notice what happens around you objectively. Or maybe you need something a little more concrete, so you decide to do at least ten things that are guaranteed to make you smile. Intention setting can look however you’d like. If you are someone who tends to thrive off of structure, consider making your intentions specific and attainable with qualifying factors and reasonable limits.
- You time: We all know how precious time can be. With all of the things going on in your life, try to set aside some time for yourself. Maybe that is the entire day or just 20 minutes, but allow yourself to be a little selfish with your time, because you deserve it. What you do with that time is up to you, but we suggest doing something that you really love.
- Food: This one could go in a few directions, so choose your own adventure! It’s possible that your self care is all about honoring your body and treating it like a temple with healthy foods that make you feel good physically. You could also choose to celebrate the process of creating and have some fun making meals and learning new recipes. Or maybe you decide to allow a little indulgence and order that double fudge cake with an extra scoop of ice cream. The trick here is just to do what you want. It’s that easy! Self-care does not have to be limited to one day a year. In fact, we encourage you to do things that make you feel happy and alive as often as you can.
Feel free to share with us some of your favorite self-care practices!