Various - The Illustrated Self-Care Bible

Discovering and focusing on self-care will allow you to live your best life.

In todays hectic and often stressful world, its easy to forget to focus on yourself and to look after your needs. When life is busy, its only natural to get caught up in work, taking care of children, rushing from one place to another, and enjoying an active social life. With so many commitments to juggle, its no wonder that looking after yourself can get overlooked.

Its often only when things catch up with you, when physical or mental health problems occur, that you realize you matter, too, and you need to stop putting yourself last.

Thats why self-care is so important. When you learn to focus on self-care, you can integrate it into your daily life to form part of your regular routine. Self-care is about achieving a better balance in your life and knowing when to give in, stop, and look after you. Its learning about your needs, how you cope best in certain situations, and how you can manage difficult issues better. And its about finding things that you enjoy doing and including them in your life as much as possible.

Ultimately, discovering self-care involves learning to look after and love yourself so that you can experience optimum wellness physically, mentally, and emotionally, allowing you to live your life as the best version of yourself.

SELF-CARE IS NOT

Self-care is not about being selfish. It is not a selfish act to focus on yourself and to take time to look after you; its actually its a self-respectful act. The more you take time to look after yourself and keep your physical, emotional, and social wellness in check, the more energy youll have for focusing on your work, friends, loved ones, and the commitments and activities in your life. By developing regular self-care practices, youre taking control and empowering yourself.

ELEMENTS OF SELF-CARE

The art of developing self-care habits doesnt involve one single act. Instead, there are multiple elements involved, from improving areas of your physical wellness routine and looking after your emotional health, to taking care of your life balance and achieving a better social wellness. It is incremental and holistic.

PHYSICAL SELF-CARE

Physical self-care involves taking care of your body in order to improve your physical wellness. One of the key elements of keeping your body moving and maintaining the energy you need to get through the day is to ensure that you get a good nights sleep. It is also important to learn how to truly relax and develop healthy night-time routines, giving yourself the best chance for your body to unwind and find deep and restorative sleep.

What you choose to eat and drink plays a major role in your physical wellness. This involves making healthy choices about the foods and drinks that will make you feel good and give you the right balance of the energy and nutrition you need.