Life gets busy, and learning how to promote your self-care can make you stronger mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually. One way to start is to incorporate the following self-care strategies. Here is a list of 3 strategies to promote self-care.

3 Strategies to Promote Self-Care:

1. Deep-Breathing Exercises

When under stress, your body’s internal sympathetic nervous system responds. As a result, blood pressure and heart rate increase, and your breathing becomes shallow and rapid. Learning to slow your breathing actively helps to bring these under control.

Make deep-breathing practices part of your self-care and use them wherever you are.

1. Start by focusing on your breath.
2. Take a deep breath, slowly breathing in through your nose and counting to four.
3. At the top, hold for seven seconds.
4. Slowly exhale through your mouth, counting to eight.
5. Repeat until your body, and your mind feel relaxed

2. Progressive Relaxation

Stress can sneak up on you or overwhelm you all at once, causing muscles to tense. A progressive relaxation technique can help ease the tension and can also serve as a way to promote self-care whenever you notice yourself tensing up.

• Begin by focusing on one part of your body, such as your legs.
• As you take a deep, slow breath, tightly squeeze the muscles of the legs for five seconds.
• Release as you exhale.
• Wait 15 seconds, then move up to another muscle group.

Becoming familiar with what relaxation feels like can help you stay alert to developing tensed muscles. You can practice self-care with a progressive relaxation technique at the first sign of this happening.

3. Reframe Any Negative Thoughts

Negative thoughts can take over and consume you if you let them. Promoting self-care means you learn to move past these negative thoughts and see them for what they are. Dwelling on them only does you harm, increasing stress levels.

Get in the practice of reframing any negative thoughts with supportive statements, such as

• It’s okay that I’m not perfect.
• Sometimes things go wrong, but I can handle it.
• There’s no reason to take such criticism personally.
• I don’t have to engage in this conflict.

Different Types of Self-Care

There are several types of self-care you can implement at any time. These include:

Social Self-Care

• Calling or meeting a friend
• Volunteering
• Joining a club, group, or cause

Physical Self-Care

• Healthy eating
• Drinking water
• Exercising
• Going for a walk
• Getting better sleep

Mental Self-Care

• Practicing mindfulness
• Taking breaks
• Listening to music
• Reading a book
• Playing games

Spiritual Self-Care

• Praying
• Connecting with nature
• Meditating
• Self-reflection

Determine what self-care strategies will work for you and make it a point to practice them often.

Axiom Medical Can Help!

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