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

Hello and welcome to this article about what is physical self care! No doubt, you have noticed that self care talk is more and more present online. Self care covers a lot of ground, but in this post I will focus on the physical aspect of it. How do we care for our physical body and well-being?

what is physical self care

To answer what is physical self care, we have to go into the many aspects that it covers. For most people, physical exercise is the first thing that comes to mind. You go to the gym, or do yoga, or any kind of workout. And this is how you look after your physical body.

In reality, it takes more than that. Physical self care is:

  • physical exercise
  • hygiene
  • prevention
  • healthy eating
  • good sleep
  • a clean environment
  • sometimes pampering

Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you have to add even more to your ever-growing daily to-do list. We will get into implementing all aspects of physical self care in a seamless and easy way.

We’ll get into each of these aspects and discuss what is physical self care and what it is not. I will also give you a fool-proof recipe on how to include more physical self care in your day-to-day, without disrupting your current habits.

What Is Physical Self Care?

So let’s get into it! There are 7 main pillars for physical self care. Let’s take them one by one.

1. Physical Exercise

Let’s start with the one everybody is thinking of. We all agree that to have a healthy body, we need to move. Whether we like it or not, whether we have a workout regime in our daily routine of not, we know it’s good for us.

What most people don’t know, is that moving our body is not only good for our physical health. It also works wonders for our mental health. Studies have shown that a high intensity workout 3 times a week has better results for depression and anxiety than medication.

People who exercise regularly have less stress, more resilience and better mood.

But high intensity exercise is not the only answer. The good news is: any kind of physical activity is beneficial. This means even Pilates or yoga, stretching or taking a walk.

The key is to move. Find something that works for you, something that you enjoy and gets to blood running.

2. Hygiene

When thinking about what is physical self care, we should also take a look at other aspects, such as hygiene. Why is hygiene important?

Apart from the obvious, good hygiene can prevent the development of disease. It helps prevent the spread of infectious diseases and is responsible for better physical health.

On top of that, it helps with your confidence. Let’s not forget that we live among other people, who often assess us through the way we present ourselves. It’s how we work, and we all do it. Appearances matter, and this has a direct consequence on our place in society.

A clean, healthy appearance is a confidence booster. And you definitely noticed it yourself. Have you ever run into someone when you were wearing something scruffy? How did you feel? And how do you feel when you are put together? Do you notice a difference in confidence?

3. Prevention

Prevention can mean many things, but I want to focus here on medical prevention.

Physical self care is also about your regular physical exams. It’s abut blood work and regular check-ups. It’s about staying on top of your health.

Think of it this way: do you take your child to regular check-ups? Do you take your pet to the vet? Then why aren’t you doing the same for yourself?

It’s always better to prevent than to treat, and caring for your own health is an act of self love.

Go ahead and book that appointment! It only takes a minute, but it’s so precious in the long run.

4. Healthy Eating

What you put in your body affects your physical health. We tend to forget that, because of our busy lives. Food has so many uses in our daily lives:

  • it’s this thing that we need to get out of the way because we are busy. So we gobble up something at our desk, or in the car, to fill our stomach
  • it’s a social occasion. This is when we catch up with friends, the only time in the day we can take a moment and talk
  • it’s the thing we use at the end of the day to numb our overwhelming feelings. It’s the comfort, the feel-good moment
  • it’s the thing we sometimes use to control the way we look

But we have forgotten its actual purpose: to nourish. Start thinking about food in this way. When you decide what and when to eat, make this decision intentional. Ask yourself what your food is giving you. Forget about diets and convenience. Does the thing you eat offer nourishment?

5. Good Sleep

The benefits of good sleep are many, sleep supports every system in your body. It’s like your reset button.

Our days have grown more busy and our schedule more full then ever. It’s understandable that we tend to see sleep as an inconvenience. There are so many hours in the day when we are not productive.

Unfortunately, sleep deprivation comes with many short- and long-term consequences:

  • a weakened immune system
  • increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes and dementia
  • increased depression and anxiety
  • affects cognitive functions, like attention, decision-making and memory

The amount of sleep we need differs according to age, but for adults it’s 7 or more hours. Best approach is to listen to your body. If it needs more hours of sleep, find a way to include them in your schedule. For example, skip the midnight doom scrolling. It may seem like what you need in that moment, but it’s not.

Prioritize your sleep and you will have more energy to get things done the next day.

6. Your Environment

We often overlook it, but our environment has an impact on our physical health.

The air we breathe has a direct impact on our physical body. While we can’t control what we breathe in when we go out, we do have control over our own home.

If you live in a polluted urban area, you can use an air purifier in your home. Especially if you or someone in your household suffers from allergies.

One of the more overlooked aspects of air quality is the pollutants we ourselves use. Cleaning supplies and scented candles are often toxic, and these toxins can linger in our home for days. Try to be more mindful with the products you buy. Opt for more natural substances and be weary of synthetic perfumes.

Another aspect of a healthy environment is cleanliness and order. Hygiene extends to your environment as well, not only your body. Make a habit of keeping it clean. This will also improve your mood, as clutter often leads to a cluttered mind as well.

7. Pampering

What is physical self care without bath bombs and facials, right?

In reality, this is a bit controversial. Yes, pampering can be a part of self care. There is nothing wrong with taking a relaxing bubble bath. Unfortunately, many people see it as the only way to self care. And this is unhelpful.

Pampering alone cannot improve your physical health. If you don’t take the previous points seriously, pampering is not going to help. You can burrow into your cozy bed with a hot drink at the end of the day, and it might make you feel better in the moment. But your struggles will not go away the next day. These are quick fixes.

If you are looking for significant change, you need to put in the work every day.

This is not to say that pampering isn’t good for you. But please see it for what it is: having a nice, relaxing time. Relaxation is necessary for your physical and mental health, so make the most of it. But don’t make it the be-all and end-all of self care.

Your First Steps to Physical Self Care

Now that your have a better understanding of what is physical self care, you may want to start adding it to your day-to-day life. But there are so many aspects of it, and so much to do. It can be overwhelming. If you want to know where to start, here are 3 easy steps that you can incorporate into your routine starting today:

1. Start with physical check-ups.

It takes 5 minutes to make a call. You don’t have to book them all now. Start with what seems more important for you right now.

  • If you haven’t been to the dentist’s in a long time, you can start there.
  • If you wear glasses, it’s a good idea to go and get your eyes checked.

You get the picture.

2. Go for a walk 3 times a week

You don’t have to get a gym membership. If you don’t already have an exercise routine, you will not use it.

But you can add a 20-minute walk in your schedule 3 times a week.

You can try squeezing it in after a quick lunch. If you can wake up 20 minutes earlier, do that.

Instead of going on social media in the evening, take a walk around the block.

There are many ways in which you can get some time for yourself every other day. 20 minutes isn’t that long at all.

3. Go to bed before midnight

If you go to bed late, try to push your bedtime earlier little by little. You can start going to bed 15 minutes earlier this week. Then, next week, add another 15 minutes. And so on.

Going to bed earlier will improve the quality of your sleep.

It’s such a small change, but the effects are significant.

To stay motivated, remember you are making these changes for your own health and well being.

As these small habits become the norm in your day-to-day life, you can start introducing new ones, like:

  • changing your filters and cleaning products
  • adding 10 more minutes to your walks
  • adding a 10-minute stretching routine in the morning
  • reading up on nutrition and healthy eating
  • taking 5 minutes to tidy up before going to bed

Don’t try to do it all at once. Always keep in mind that in order for it to stick, a habit needs time to become normalized.

Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, or it will all feel like a burden.

Take your time. Self care is a practice, not a race.

To learn more on how to begin your self care journey an stick to it, check out this article:

Best Strategy to Begin Your Self Care Journey and Stick to It

5 Daily Habits to Help You Break Out of Burnout

This article will tackle a few habits that can help you in your effort to break out of burnout. Burnout is a growing issue in modern society. We have fast-paced lives, demanding jobs and endless responsibilities.

At the same time, we are overwhelmed by the expectations we place on ourselves. We have to look our best, have the perfect vacation and be perfect in our relationships.

This is a lot to ask from a mere human being. And sometimes we can lose ourselves in the maze of expectations, real or imagined.

To break out of burnout, you need to re-think the way you approach your everyday life. Changing your mindset starts with changing your habits. What you do every day makes up who you are and how you see the world.

I will teach you how to install small habits, which are easy to incorporate in your day. These habits will help you re-frame your thinking and your priorities.

Your purpose is to create breathing space and focus on your well-being. You do that through

  • daily (and fun!) activities that help you re-center
  • changing your mindset from stuck to empowered
  • connection and a feeling of belonging

I’ll break these down for you into small habits that you can in your daily routine. They are practices that worked for me and that I still use to this day.

These habits help me stay focused on what matters and cut through the everyday noise. They helped me break out of burnout. And I hope you will try them out, because I am sure they will work for you as well.

1. Start with Gratitude

I’m sure you heard a lot of talk about the benefits of gratitude, but how does this work?

Studies have shown that practicing gratitude improves mental health, and reduces the incidence of negative emotions.

Here’s how it works:

  • reserve 5 minutes every morning for this practice, before you start your day. Make it non-negotiable
  • list 5 things you are grateful for in that moment.
  • try to appreciate aspects of your life that your are taking for granted.
  • make it specific. Instead of saying “I am grateful for my pet”, – what specifically is rewarding in your relationship with your pet? You could say “I am grateful for the cuddle session I had with my pet after I woke up”

Make this a habit, and in time you will notice you will become mentally stronger.

2. Go for a Walk

You’ve heard it a thousand times: exercise is good for your mental and physical health. But you are overworked, exhausted and busy like nobody’s business. You don’t have the energy to squeeze in an exercise routine.

But what if I told you that you can do it in a way that’s fun and relaxing?

Walking is exercise. It has actual benefits:

  • it gets the blood running, which is good for your heart
  • it strengthens your bones and your immune system
  • it helps you sleep better, which will improve your mood
  • it boosts your energy

And you don’t have to do a lot of it to see benefits. A half and hour long walk 3 times a week can do the trick. Although you will notice the benefits right away, and you’ll want to do more.

And if you think adding walks to your already busy schedule is not fun, I hear you. But the good think about walking is that you mind is free to do whatever it wants. If you can’t face the idea of letting your mind wander, I can see how that can be boring. Try listening to music that relaxes you. Or a podcast. Or an audiobook.

How do you find 30 minutes in your day? Easy: first check your app usage on your phone. My guess is there’s an app or two that take up a lot more than that every day. Could you replace scrolling with a walk every now and then?

3. Have Fun

If you are in burnout, chances are you forgot the meaning of the word fun a long time ago. You are too overwhelmed, you don’t have time for yourself because you are adulting. But this is exactly what’s going to help you break out of burnout.

Replace one of the boring activities with a pleasant one and see what happens. My guess is nothing. The world doesn’t end if you leave the dishes for tomorrow, or skip grocery shopping because you want to go out with a friend.

We make these concessions for our work all the time. We postpone daily tasks in our personal life to add more time to our work schedule. But we don’t do it for our mental health, were it matters.

You need to re-frame your thinking and re-shuffle your priorities. Your number one focus right now should be mental stability. Because without it, you won’t be able to do any of the tasks which now make up most of your day.

  • Go for a meal with a friend
  • Re-discover old hobbies
  • Watch a comedy special
  • Go on a night out, if that’s what you like
  • Go on a short trip this weekend

We need time out to rest, re-calibrate and re-charge. You can’t go around that, it’s how we’re built.

4. Practice Self Compassion

Have you noticed that when something goes wrong, you put yourself down?

It’s your fault for missing that deadline. You messed up by not organizing yourself better. You’re always making the same mistakes over and over. You’re not good enough. You promised yourself you would eat healthier. You could always do better.

Except you can’t do everything and do it perfectly. We compare ourselves with the best in everybody else and we find ourselves lacking. But success in one area does not mean success across the board. We keep ourselves to impossible standards.

Try practicing self compassion instead. Whenever the critical voice comes up, try to focus on the practical reasons why you are not perfect.

Make sure you talk to yourself the same way you would a good friend or a child. You will realise that you have been bullying yourself for years, or your whole life. We tend to see the mitigating circumstances in the people we love, but seldom in ourselves.

Give yourself a break. Remind yourself that you too are someone that you love. Be patient, be compassionate.

5. Connect with Others

You can’t do it all on your own. Also, you don’t have to.

Human beings are social animals, we evolved in communities and we need each other to survive. Studies have shown that loneliness raises your stress level, increases the risk for heart disease and dementia. Not only that, but social isolation is linked to early death.

  • Reach out to your friends and don’t feel ashamed to talk about your issues.
  • Get involved in your community. Volunteer, meet new people.
  • Talk to your neighbors
  • Call your loved ones more often
  • Schedule playtime and activities with your kids, if you have them

Take this seriously, because you can’t heal from anything without a support system. Make sure yours is a strong as possible.

Conclusion:

You can break out of burnout by starting with a few quick and easy changes to your everyday routine. You don’t have to turn your life upside down to be effective. Start focusing on your self care, one small step at a time.

Change your mindset, try to have some fun, cultivate relationships and the weight you are feeling will start to lift off.

Do these habits feel easy to implement in your daily life? Let me know in the comment section which one you would apply first.

Best Strategy to Begin Your Self Care Journey and Stick to It

If you want to begin your self care journey but don’t quite know where to start, don’t worry! You’ve come to the right place.

In this article, I will break down the process for you and guide you on your journey step by step.

Best Strategy to Begin Your Self Care Journey and Stick to It

Self care covers many aspects, like mental and physical health, community, purpose, rest and hobbies. There are plenty of areas which you can improve on, and you can’t do it all at once.

The best strategy is to break them down.

If you start with the easiest step first, you will build a strong and sustainable self care routine in no time. And you will stick to it!

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to begin your self care journey. It will be easy to incorporate in your daily life, and is customizable to your unique needs.

How to Begin Your Self Care Journey

Set Yourself Up For Success

Whenever you begin something new, it’s always a good idea to start with the easiest thing first. This builds confidence and motivates you to keep going.

When it comes to self care, no-one is starting from scratch. I mentioned earlier that there are several pillars to self care:

  • mental health
  • physical well-being
  • community
  • purpose
  • rest and hobbies

Chances are you are already have experience with one of these things, for example:

  • you used to work out at some point in your life;
  • you used to doodle in your free time, or you may have started a course on calligraphy a couple of years ago;
  • you volunteered when you were a student and found fulfillment in it.

The point is, self care can cover a lot of areas in your life. You have already lived some of it, so you have some experience and knowledge. Think about a time when you did something that felt rewarding, and start there!

Start Small

Let’s imagine you decided to begin your self care journey by focusing on physical health first. That covers a lot of ground: physical exercise, nutrition, sleep hygiene, preventative care, and so on.

Again, sounds overwhelming, right?

But what if you started with a 10 minute exercise routine 3 times a week? That’s doable.

It’s easy to find time for it. It doesn’t require you to change your everyday schedule or lifestyle, and it’s easy to do if you’re not in shape.

Does that make a difference?

Actually, yes. Any workout is better than no workout. But that’s not the point. You are starting small, because it builds habits and confidence. Soon, you will want to scale up. You will feel good abut it, and you will feel good in your own body. So you will make time for more. That’s how you grow.

Be Patient: Everything That Is Worthwhile Takes Time

When you begin your self care journey, please keep in mind: you will not see results right away. Your life will not change over night, and that should not be your goal.

Building up a new habit takes time, if you want it to be sustainable. So be patient. Trust me, you will see the results.

What happens if you fall off the wagon?

Nothing, you keep going. You skipped you workout routine of Wednesday? That’s okay, don’t stop. Be patient with yourself, because you are doing something new.

Re-adjusting takes time. Just because you didn’t exercise for a couple of weeks, does not mean you should give up. Go back into it, no shame. With every attempt, you will get better at it.

Build Around Your Small Habits

Great! Now that you exercise 3 times a week, you can add to it. You could extend your sessions to 15 minutes, instead of 10. Or you could decide to add an extra session.

Think of what works for you and what is feasible for you. Your goals should be achievable, otherwise your will feel overwhelmed.

When workout is part of your daily routine, you can start incorporating new things. For example, when is the last time you had a blood test? Can you schedule it? Did you have a dental check this year? Could you squeeze it in?

You could come up with a list of regular health checks. Plan them in the same month every year, so you’ll know: it’s January, time for my regular eye exam.

Add a New Level Of Difficulty

When your current habits are not a challenge anymore, you can add new elements to your self care. If you don’t have to make an effort about your workout routine, it’s time to focus on your nutrition.

Again, start with what you know. And if you think you don’t know the first thing about nutrition, you are wrong.

Most likely, you know that eating processed foods is bad for you. You could start by replacing two meals a week with cooked food. You don’t have to learn how to cook. The internet is full of easy recipes that anyone can make if you follow the instructions. Pick one or two and start there.

Educate Yourself

As you begin your self care journey, it’s important that you keep educating yourself.

What if I told you that learning is fun? I know, I know, your school days were either boring or hellish, or both. But those days are behind you. Because now you are learning something that interests you. You are putting in time towards your own well-being.

Start reading up on healthy eating. You’ll find yourself absorbed by the information. That’s because it interests you. We are interested in topics that concern us.

Learning is not only useful, but also rewarding. It expands your horizons, it helps you grow and develop, it shows you the way forward.

Take a few moments every week to study and then apply your leanings to your everyday life. You’ll love the person you become.

How to Stay Motivated on Your Self Care Journey

This Sounds Like a Lot of Work. How Do You Stay Motivated?

Easy: keep going. You give yourself permission to:

  • be imperfect
  • make mistakes
  • start over if you failed.

This is a lifetime commitment, you don’t need the threat of perfection looming over you.

Self care should be fun and rewarding.

A rigid attitude will only make your goals feel like homework. If you give yourself space for mistakes, you are giving yourself space for growth.

Conclusion

Remember, you are in it for the long haul. What you are doing may seem small in the beginning, but you are growing all the time.

Your goal is not to be a different person tomorrow. It is to look back in a year’s time and marvel at how much you have grown. This is only possible if the habits you are instilling are sustainable.

Be patient, trust yourself. You’ve got this!