What is Personal and Emotional SELF-CARE

In the times we live in, with accelerated rhythms and immersed in multiple tasks, personal and emotional self-care it has become an aspect to be taken into account as a determining factor of one's physical, psychological and emotional health. We live in developed and advanced societies that, however, have entangled us in frenzied rhythms very contrary to true human needs. Starting from here, self-care becomes an essential tool to guarantee our health.

In this Psychology-Online article we are going to expose the importance of regain self care As something essential to the human being, we will propose a self-care plan and we will give you ideas about possible techniques to use to carry it out.

Index

1. What is personal and emotional self-care
2. How to make a personal and emotional self-care plan
3. Personal and emotional self-care techniques
4. Personal and emotional self-care as personal and social responsibility

Personal and emotional self-care is defined as the set of actions that a person undertakes to benefit their health and well-being. In reality, it is an innate quality to the human being whose main objective is to guarantee his survival and, with it, that of his family and social group. We call the set of actions that we carry out around our personal care "habits of life". The habits we adopt will condition our general health. They interact with each other, conditioning our physical, mental and emotional state. We can differentiate between healthy life habits versus toxic life habits.

Healthy habits

• Balance diet
• Moderate or no toxic substance use
• Moderate physical exercise
• Restful rest
• Prevention and / or reduction of environmental pollution of the environment
• Proper personal hygiene
• Mental and emotional balance
• Positive social relationships
• Practice leisure activities
• Contact with the nature

Habits harmful to health

• Unbalanced diet
• Habitual or excessive use of toxic substances
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Insomnia or excessive sleep
• Environment with environmental pollution
• Lack of personal hygiene
• Stress and chronic negative emotions
• Negative or nonexistent personal relationships
• Not having leisure activities
• Neglecting contact with nature

The social systems in which we currently live, although they have brought us great technological advances and human development, have been a screen regarding the respect of our basic care needs personal. The accelerated rhythms of life; the multitasking in which we are immersed; dependence on the economic system; the promotion of urban life as a synonym for personal and social success; etc., have led us to develop many unhealthy lifestyle habits that threaten our physical, psychological and spiritual well-being.

The steps necessary to specify an action plan that promotes and maintains our physical and emotional health requires the following steps:

1. Become aware: inform us about which are the healthy lifestyles that will favor our general well-being (described in the previous section) compared to those that harm it and why.
2. Discernment: list and describe our current lifestyle habits and assess their consequences on our health
3. Action strategy: establish a daily routine to incorporate these new habits little by little into our lives and, simultaneously, eliminate unhealthy habits.
4. Support net: seek and request the necessary help to carry out this plan, both personal (family, friends, etc.) and professional (nutritionists, personal trainers, psychotherapists, etc.).

Some of the techniques that will allow us reincorporate healthy habits in our daily routine are the following:

1. Consult a nutritionist and enter a healthy and balanced diet based on the consumption of fruits, vegetables and greens; whole grains and flours; vegetable proteins, mainly (reducing as much as possible the consumption of animal proteins); avoid sweets and processed ones.
2. Drink daily 1.5 liters of water approximately.
3. Eliminate the consumption of tobacco, alcohol and other toxic substances.
4. Perform physical exercise regular and moderate: walking, swimming, cycling, yoga, etc.
5. To sleep an average of 6-8h a day, making sure that it provides us with the necessary rest. Here you will find tips and tricks to sleep fast and rest better.
6. Reduce environmental pollution avoiding toxic products in cleaning and personal hygiene; reducing the use of mobile and electronic devices; using public vehicles or bicycles; consuming organic food; etc.
7. Keep a good personal hygiene: regular shower, clean clothes, oral hygiene, etc.
8. Practice relaxation techniques and visualization; dance; relaxing baths; listen to quiet music; paint mandalas; etc. to return to our slower pace of life.
9. Balance moments of introspection with social relationships, nourishing ourselves with those people who feed our soul.
10. Rediscover (if we still do not know) our personal tastes and realize activities that satisfy them.
11. Carry out as many activities as possible in open spaces In nature: social and family encounters; carrying out physical exercise and leisure activities and personal relaxation; work and school activities; etc. Here you can see 12 ecological and economic activities to do outdoors.

The practice of such healthy lifestyles feed each other while the practice of some enhances and reinforces that of others. It is, in fact, an attitude of respect towards life itself that has a positive impact on our environment.

Incorporating these lifestyle habits of personal care is nothing more than recovering our essential mode of functioning as human beings: live in a respectful way with ourselves and, therefore, with our peers and with nature. This is why the goal of self-care becomes not only a way of treating ourselves with respect but also a personal and social responsibility necessary to guarantee a more peaceful, supportive and fair coexistence for all living things.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is personal and emotional self-care, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

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