Self Care Bee

Did you know that the average person’s attention span has dropped to just 8.25 seconds – shorter than that of a goldfish? In our hyper-connected world, caring for our cognitive health has never been more crucial.

I’m excited to share how intellectual self care can transform your mental fitness and help you reclaim your focus. Let’s explore this fascinating journey of mental enrichment together!

What Is Intellectual Self Care?

Intellectual self care encompasses deliberate activities and practices that stimulate your mind, enhance cognitive function, and promote mental growth. It’s about treating your brain like the powerful muscle it is – one that needs regular exercise, proper nutrition, and adequate rest to perform at its best.

Why Is Intellectual Self Care Important?

Intellectual self care is just another pillar of mental wellness. You want to be mentally strong to be able to face the challenges that life throws at you. With a clear and strong mind, you are better at problem solving, quicker on your feet, better at controlling your emotions and behaviour. A clear and strong mind will also enable you to engage in productive work.

Let’s dive into the different benefits of intellectual self care an how to achieve them.

Improved Attention Span

Sadly, our attention span is constantly decreasing, as a result of short for content and excessive social media usage. It’s getting harder and harder to focus on linear tasks. We are addicted to the constant stimulation, which is reducing our ability to ignore incoming distractions.

Studies show that heavy social media users become less able to ignore distraction in general, which leads to poorer cognitive performance and shrinks parts of the brain associated with maintaining concentration.

If you feel that this might be your case too, you need to take back your ability to focus and expand your attention span. Learn how to build “attention endurance” through progressive mental training. Remember that it’s a process, and you have to stick to it. You will not see results right away, so don’t be disappointing. Attention is like a muscle that takes time to be trained.

We will explore a few effective techniques to improve your attention span later in the article.

Improved Memory

Another side effect of intellectual self care is having a better memory. Stick to your intellectual self care routine, and you will enhance your ability to remember facts and be more organized in your thinking.

We live in a world that is constantly changing, and learning is part of our everyday life. Our minds need to be agile and retain new information all the time. You need mental fitness to memorize all the information you need for your work, hobbies or any other interests you may have.

Problem Solving

Problem solving is the ability to understand what is happening in your environment, identify obstacles and find solutions to help you meet your needs and achieve your goals. Having problem-solving skills can make a difference when looking for a high-paying job, dealing with change and making decisions.

Focus on your mental fitness to improve your overall performance – not only professionally, but also in your personal life. You will be able to understand and assess risk in a more efficient manner, come up with optimal solutions for your problems, and create opportunities for yourself.

Critical Thinking

In a world that bombards us with misinformation, it is imperative to have critical thinking. Algorithms have taken over our social platforms, but also our sources of information. The lines between useful information and clickbait are more blurred than ever. It’s getting increasingly difficult to be well informed.

Because of this, critical thinking is one of the most important muscles you need if you want to make informed decisions. A strong routine for intellectual self care will help you better at logical reasoning and argument analysis. It will improve your ability to identify cognitive biases and overcome them.

This will lead to mental agility, a better understanding of your environment and better decision-making. A huge step towards building the life you want.

How to Practice Intellectual Self Care

Now that we talked about the benefits of having an intellectual self care routine, let’s focus on what it actually consists of?. What can you do, what actions do you need to take to improve your mental fitness? And, most importantly, how can you integrate these new practices in your current life?

Here are the main practices that you can adopt to improve your intellectual wellness and agility. You don’t have to add all of these exercises to your daily routine. Just find a few that are more feasible for your current situation and routines. Think about replacing old habits that don’t serve you, rather than adding new practices to an already busy schedule.

Brain Training

Mental strength requires training, just like you train a muscle for physical strength. In general, it is a good idea to get out of your way to make your brain work. Don’t be passive, challenge yourself.

• Try to remember phone numbers, shopping lists or useful information that you use every day, instead of relying on your phone to do everything for you.
• Do simple mental calculations, don’t just reach out for your phone. Always think of ways in which you could exercise your mind. You can also incorporate cognitive training exercises and apps in your daily routine. We will discuss them in more detail in the following section.
• Practice mindfulness meditation for improved mental clarity. You can start with 5 minutes a day. Try it before going to bed, in a waiting room, on a bus. There are so many idle moments in a day. Be mindful of them and put them to good use.

Games

Another way to improve your mental wellness and agility is to play games. Yes, video games do count. But it’s best to explore strategy games that enhance decision-making skills.

Try puzzle games that boost pattern recognition abilities, like chess, scrabble, video games, crossword puzzles, Sudoku.

Participate in word games for improved verbal processing. There are countless options in your app store.

However, make sure you don’t stick to the same game for a long time. If the game doesn’t feel challenging for you anymore, it’s time to find a new one. Even mind-strengthening games can become routine.

Learning New Skills

Choose skills that challenge different aspects of your cognition. As we’ve established, routine is the enemy of an agile mind. Look for those experiences that make you feel a little out of your depth.

Learn a new language, take dancing classes, learn to knit or play an instrument. A bonus is that eye-hand coordination. But whatever you choose, make sure it’s something new.

Don’t worry about learning skills that are useful in your professional life. Not everything you do is supposed to be monetized. You are doing it for yourself: because it’s healthy for your brain, and because it’s fun. And who knows? It might help you make new friends.

Relaxation

An aspect we often overlook when it comes to mental strength is relaxation. Working on yourself is great. But it’s just as important to take a break. Do not neglect idle time, it’s just as important as productivity. Actually, it’s vital for productivity and optimal results.

• Take breaks during your workday. A 5 or 10 minute break every hour will work wonders for your concentration. It will help you create space and you will get back to work refreshed and more efficient.
• Take your weekends seriously. Unplug form work on your days off and focus on other aspects of your life. Rest, socialize, work on your hobbies. This distance will actually help you put work into perspective and you will come us with better solutions to you problems.
• Last but not least, practice proper sleep hygiene for optimal cognitive function. There’s a reason why we sleep. If it wasn’t necessary, we would have evolved without it. No doubt you noticed that your reflexes, reaction time and cognitive processes are slower when you don’t sleep enough. Set a fixed bedtime and stick to it.

Limit Your Social Media Usage

We’ve already discussed social media and its unfortunate effects on our mental wellbeing. On top of that, it’s highly addictive. Studies show that the brain scans of heavy social media users look very similar to those addicted to drugs or gambling.

• Establish healthy boundaries with digital consumption. Many social media apps allow you to set limits and they will notify or block you when you reach those limits. If this doesn’t work for you, try uninstalling the app altogether. You will be amazed at the amount of free time you gain when you stop scrolling.
• And while the option of a dumb phone might feel a bit extreme or unrealistic in this day and age, there are tricks to make your phone less appealing, like turning the display to black-and-white instead of full colour.
• Create designated tech-free zones and times. Leave your phone out of the bedroom, or turn it off 2 hours before going to bed.
• Actively create space and engagement in the real world. If you are busy with engaging activities and meaningful connections, you are less likely to reach out for your phone.

Read more on how to create a personalised digital detox routine here:

Digital Detox Routine: Simple Steps to Reclaim Your Time and Focus

Conclusion

Your journey toward better intellectual self care starts with small, consistent steps. By implementing these strategies, you’re not just investing in your current mental wellness – you’re building a foundation for lifelong cognitive health.

Remember, every moment spent on intellectual self care is an investment in your future self. Ready to begin? Start with just one technique from this guide today, and watch how it transforms your mental landscape!

If you were wondering what is emotional self care, this article will dive into the different aspects that make it up. We will look at the 7 pillars of emotional self care, and how you can make space for it in your daily life.

Emotional health is often overlooked. In a society obsessed with appearances, we only focus on the physical. The emotional side of our live is not visible, so we tend to overlook it.

In the last decade, emotional issues and burnout seem to affect more of us, and at an earlier age. So conversations about them, and what is emotional self care, are more frequent. Unfortunately, this is only the case in certain corners of the internet.

What Is Emotional Self Care

Let’s dive into what is emotional self care.

I have broken it down into 7 main pillars:

• cultivating emotional awareness
• learning and practising emotional regulation
• setting up and enforcing boundaries
• mindfulness
• gratitude practice
• connecting with others
• self love

So let’s break these down and discuss, in detail, what is emotional self care and how to make it a habit in your day-to-day life.

1. Emotional Awareness

When you deal with your emotions, you first need to be able to identify them. We all have emotions, at all time. This is what drives most of our decisions and choices. But how often are you able to identify your emotions at any given moment? How often are you able to name them?

If you cannot identify and understand your emotions, you are their prisoner. As soon as you learn to name them, understand where they are coming from, you gain power over them. They lose their power over you, and instead you are in the driver’s seat.

For example, if something angers you, you have more control over your reaction if you notice and acknowledge the anger. If you don’t stop to observe yourself, you will react and you will do something impulsive.

If you struggle identifying your emotions, you can start by using a feelings wheel.

This is your first step in your emotional self care journey.

2. Emotional Regulation

Emotional regulation is the ability to manage your emotions, and not let them lead you. Learning to regulate emotions starts in early childhood. Your carer’s reaction to your emotions teaches you how to soothe yourself in the future. By observing their reactions and how they regulate their own emotions, you learn your future behaviour.

Most likely, our parents and carers have struggled with their own emotional regulation. That is not to say they should be blamed. They did their best with the tools they had available at the time. But they are human and imperfect, just like us. So it falls on us to learn to soothe ourselves, if we want to have a healthy and balanced emotional life.

There are a few ways you can do that:

Create Space

This relates back to our previous point, about not reacting on the spot. When you feel a surge of emotion overwhelming you, pause. Observe instead of reacting. If you have the tools, try to name it. But even if you don’t, just take a moment before you say or do something.

This will allow your body to disconnect from that reactive state. It will also give you time to get a clearer picture.

Another important skill to have in your emotional tool kit is staying with your negative feelings. Whenever we have an unpleasant emotion, we try to silence it. We do that either by distracting ourselves with work, or other unhealthy coping mechanisms. But this won’t make the feeling or the problem go away. By avoiding it, we feed the cycle of emotional disregulation.

Instead of trying to remove a negative feeling, try to stay with it. Analyse it. Try to understand where it is coming from, and why it bothers you.

Grounding

There are certain exercises and techniques you can use to disconnect from a triggering emotion. This is called grounding.

Instead of allowing an emotion to overwhelm you, you can try bringing your attention to the immediate reality.

There are countless exercises out there, the most common one is the 54321 method. It’s easy to remember and it’s a useful trick to have whenever you are feeling overwhelmed.

Here’s how it works:

• identify 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can touch
• 3 things you can hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste

Doing this exercise will get you out of your head and help bring you back to the present.

Talking About It

When you think about what is emotional self care, calling a friend is not the first thing that comes to mind. But talking actually helps with regulating our emotions.

Talking about a problem can reduce stress and give perspective. Again, it gets you out of your head and helps you unload your burdens. It also gives you a clearer mindset, which will lead to better problem solving.

Have you ever felt the weight of the world on our shoulders, only to talk it out and feel more empowered as you do it? This is the power of talking. Our problems seem so much bigger in our heads. As soon as we share them with someone, they lose some of the power. This gives us a feeling that we’re not alone, which is empowering.

Journaling

Journaling has a similar effect to talking: it helps you put things into perspective. It’s very useful if you are struggling with an emotion you don’t want to share.

Journaling as a regular practice is also a great tool for emotional regulation. It gives you the habit of analysing and breaking down your issues. It teaches you to put into question every emotion and see it from every angle. It’s also good to clear your head every day. It’s like brushing your teeth, but for your mind.

If you don’t know where to start with journaling, don’t worry. There are so many journaling prompts out there.

3. Boundary Setting

Boundaries are limits that we set to protect our mental and physical space. Many negative emotions come from a lack of boundaries, or our failure to protect them.

It is normal and healthy to have limits.

When others cross certain lines, this can hurt, create frustration and emotional overwhelm. For a healthy emotional life, you should learn to set boundaries in your relationships with others.

Don’t know where to start? Try to be observant. When you have a negative emotion, try to understand:

• what caused it, where it’s coming from
• what you can do to avoid it in future

This is how you know what boundaries you need to set in your interactions with others.

Of course, this is easier said than done. Because identifying a limit and setting a boundary is only the first step. The hardest part is enforcing it.

For many people, it is uncomfortable to have a conversation about limits. It’s embarrassing and unpleasant to call people out. Or you might wish to avoid judgment from others. This is understandable.

But ask yourself: how much worse does it feel when they ignore your boundaries? No matter how unpleasant you think these conversations are, you can make them a habit. Just start with something small and be consistent. It’s like building a muscle.

4. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is one of the more talked about aspects of emotional self care. The internet, and even the mainstream media, talk about the benefits of mediation and how to get into it. There are countless apps that guide you through your meditation practice. There is information available for all levels, from absolute beginner to advanced.

And for good reason. There is plenty of research out there proving that mindfulness reduces stress, builds resilience, and even helps with pain management.

Whether it’s mediation, or breathing exercises, mindfulness is a great tool to have in your kit. You don’t need to spend a lot of time or energy to include this practice in your day-to-day. You can start with a 10-minute exercise, which you can squeeze in any moment of the day.

But you don’t need to sit down and have an app to practice mindfulness. You can apply it in everything you do, without putting time aside. Mindfulness means being present. It is being aware of the present moment and observing your emotions and your reactions to them. Try being more aware of the present moment.

You know when you can’t find your keys, you put an object in the wrong place, or can’t quite remember a conversation? That’s because you weren’t mindful in those moments. You allowed your mind to wonder and didn’t engage with the present. Try to be more aware from now on. Notice your surroundings, put intentional thought into your actions. This is also mindfulness.

5. Gratitude

Gratitude is another pillar of emotional self care that is easy to apply in your daily life with remarkable benefits. It is the practice of acknowledging the good things in your life. It helps you have more positive emotions and reduces stress. With long term practice, gratitude changes the way you think.

How do you get into it? It’s easy. List 3 to 5 things every day that make you feel grateful for. Take the time to think about it, don’t just list them to get them out of the way. You need to feel the gratitude.

The way you do this is by being specific. For example, instead of:

• “I am grateful for my dog”
• try “I am grateful for the cuddle session I had with my dog this morning”

Do you notice how the second option forces you to re-live a positive moment?

Try to focus your gratitude practice around feelings, around the benefits to your life.

6. Connection

This is a broad term, but it boils down to creating connection with others and the world around us. We are not meant to be isolated. We are a part of a whole, and we have an intrinsic need to belong. Neglecting your connections is neglecting a vital part of your emotional self care.

Meaningful Relationships

Humans are social animals, and our wellbeing depends on us being part of a community. Studies have shown that people who struggle with loneliness are more depressed, anxious and live shorter lives.

So make time for your friendships. Check in with your best friend. Go to that dinner you’ve been postponing. Next time you get an invitation to a party or event, don’t turn it down. Call your relatives from time to time and ask them how they’re doing. Take time after work to chat with your partner. All these things matter and they are essential to your emotional stability.

Community

Our need for connection runs deeper than our immediate relationships. We also need to feel part of a bigger tribe. We need to feel useful.

If you can, take some time to contribute and give back. I know we’re all busy with everyday life. But it’s important to set aside an hour or two every couple of months to volunteer for a cause you support. Find something that matters to you. Or try as simple as helping someone in need.

These actions create positive emotions and make you feel you belong to something bigger than yourself.

7. Self Love

The last pillar of emotional self care is self love.

We are often so critical of ourselves. Our expectations of ourselves are always growing. There’s more and more on our plate. The world around us puts more pressure on us, and we put the same, if not more pressure on ourselves.

We have forgotten how to care for ourselves. Most of the time, we’re our biggest bully.

However, emotional health cannot exist when there’s constant pressure and unrealistic expectations.

Self Acceptance

You have to accept that you are not perfect. And that you’re not supposed to be. Meet yourself wherever you are. Life is a journey, and we are all doing our best. And in spite of what you see on social media, we’re all struggling and imperfect.

Learn to accept your shortcomings. It doesn’t mean that you’ve given up on self improvement. It just means that you acknowledge it’s a journey, and not about perfection.

Self Compassion

Have you ever found yourself unable to sleep, worrying about a stupid thing you said or done during the day? I know you have, and everyone does.

The good news is that we are all idiots at some point or another. There isn’t anyone in the world, no matter how successful, who hasn’t made a mistake.

Not only that, but you are not the only one who’s ever said or done something wrong. While it’s important to hold yourself accountable, dwelling on your mistakes for too long serves no purpose. For you, or the people involved. Evaluate what’s happened, learn from it, apologise if you have to, and move on.

Mistakes are how you learn and grow. So have some understanding for yourself.

Positive Self Talk

If you are the kind of person who is always self critical, you need to stop now. Beating yourself up is not productive. It serves no purpose whatsoever. And the way you talk to and about yourself influences your emotional wellbeing. Words do have power.

There are so many people who call themselves names for getting something wrong. Hey belittle themselves for making a mistake. Unfortunately, this internalises negative messages.

Try instead to give yourself space and understanding. Instead of:

• “I made a mistake again, I’m so useless”, try
• “I made a mistake, but it’s normal. This is how I’m learning”.

Treat yourself like you would a friend or a child. You wouldn’t be harsh or condescending. You would be encouraging and supportive. You deserve the same. Be supportive of yourself, you are doing your best after all.

Conclusion:

What is emotional self care? It’s constant self work meant to improve your emotional wellbeing. Despite the many aspects I’ve outlined above, you can start integrating it in your daily life. Like with everything, it’s best to ease into it.

Try to include a new practice in your daily habits. Take 5, or 10 minutes – as long as you can afford. I promise, you will see the benefits.

If you want to learn more about self care, check out this article on the 7 pillars of physical self care.

What Is Physical Self Care: Easy Steps for Your Daily Routine