Gill Hasson - The Self-Care Handbook: A Practical Guide to Integrating Self-Care Into Everyday Life to Improve Wellbeing

Gill Hasson

This edition first published 2020

2020 Gill Hasson.

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ISBN 978-0-857-08812-3 (hardback)

ISBN 978-0-857-08816-1 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-0-857-08815-4 (epub)

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Bet; you knew how to take good care of yourself! X

My mother always says people should be able to take care of themselves, even if they're rich and important.

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Who needs self-care? You do. We all do. Self-care is central to living a life that makes us feel good and that we feel good about. And yet too few of us recognize and honour our need to balance our mind and body; to protect, maintain, and improve our physical and mental health and our wellbeing.

The NHS's website One You www.nhs.uk/oneyou says that without knowing it, by the time we reach our 40s and 50s many of us will have dramatically increased our chances of becoming ill later in life. Whether we are eating the wrong things, drinking more than we should, continuing to smoke despite everything we know, or just not being active enough, all of these small things can add up to an unhealthy you. But, it's not always easy to make a change in our busy lives tempting treats in easy reach, bigger portions for everything we eat, and technology that allows us to shop, stay in touch, and be entertained without ever having to leave the sofa. Modern life is ganging up on us.

The good news is that you can do something about it. This book helps you discover how simple, straightforward changes can add up to making a positive difference that leads to a happier, healthier, more fulfilling life, not just in the future, but starting right now.

You deserve a happy, healthy fulfilling life. Don't you? The first chapter of this book explains that self-care isn't selfish. Quite the contrary. Self-care is self-respect. To convince you of this, in help you to get into a self-care mindset a positive mindset to recognize that whatever your faults and failings, you're as good as anyone else; that you're worth taking care of and that you deserve to feel good about yourself.

The rest of explains why and how to take care of your mental health; how to manage and reduce stress and overwhelm in your personal and work life. It also includes advice about managing your finances. You might not think that money has anything to do with mental health, but although money is not the root of all evil, no matter how much or how little you've got, it is one of life's biggest stressors.

of this book moves on to taking care of your body. Eating well, exercising regularly, and getting enough sleep are touchstones of self-care and can keep you healthy, fit, and resilient.

But whether it's self-care for your mind or your body even when you know that self-care is important it can be hard to make it happen; make it a normal part of your days and weeks and a normal part of your life.

Self-care isn't just about doing the right thing, though; it's about making changes to fit your life. The aim of this book is to help you work out ways that you can do this. In each chapter, I explain why you need self-care in that specific area of your life, acknowledge the barriers and challenges, but then offer ways you can apply self-care actions into your life.

Self-care does take some effort, be it planning and preparing healthy meals, finding ways to be physically active, or letting go of your day to get to bed on time. Even finding time to do enjoyable things requires effort on your part too! You just need to take small steps; choose one or two things one or two changes at a time, that you really think you can do, focus on them and make them a habit. Then move onto the next thing.

*******

Self-care may be the new buzz word but self-help isn't. It's what I write and teach about. In this book I've included writing from some of my other books, in particular from three of my recent books: Declutter Your Life, Kindness, and Happiness.

In fact, this book brings together so much of what through my teaching, coaching, and writing I encourage others to try and do: to accept themselves, to work on their self-esteem, to manage overwhelm at work and in their personal lives, to let go of people that are draining them, and seek out and spend time with positive people and do enjoyable things. And, to eat well, get moving, and get outside more. (I'm a walker; I'm regularly out walking in the Sussex countryside with family and friends and I'm also a trained walk leader I lead walking holidays in Europe several times a year.)

Whether you've done very little to take care of yourself, or you've let self-care slide beneath your feet; if, like the Mad Hatter told Alice You used to be much more muchier. Youve lost your muchness', then this book The Self-Care Handbook will help you regain your muchness and become more muchier.

Read on!

What's self-care? It's taking care of yourself. It's looking after yourself. Self-care is health care; care of your mental health and physical health.