Do you still feel exhausted and unproductive even after taking a break or trying new activities?

Imagine the last time you got ill when you saw a doctor and got a diagnosis, you were probably required to take prescribed pills and rest. 

If you just rested without treating the root cause of that illness, the chances of you falling sick again will be higher.

This happens when you take breaks or try new activities to battle burnout or exhaustion without developing a self-care routine.

In this blog post, we discussed self-care, the types of self-care, the importance of self, and 10 easy activities that can be incorporated into your daily routine to improve your overall well-being and boost your productivity.

What is Self-Care?

The most acceptable definition of self-care is by the World Health Organization which states that self-care is the ability of individuals, families or communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health and cope with illness and disease with or without the care of a health provider.

In simpler terms, we could say self-care is the act of promoting sustainable well-being.

Importance Of Self-Care 

Since self-care is so much more than bubble baths, and movie time with the family. It is a deliberate act to improve your overall well-being and reduce the occurrence of burnout.

The benefits of self-care cannot be overemphasized, here are some of the reasons why you should practice self-care:

1. Self-Care Reduces The Effect Of Stress

A study that was conducted found that people who had a self-care routine had a better quality of life and dealt with the effect of stress better than their counterparts.

As creative business owners, we are exposed to mental, physical and emotional stress because of the nature of our job.

Having a self-care routine to combat the effect of stress is a necessary strategy to help us become more productive.

2. Self-Care Improves Our Overall Wellbeing

The frequent burnout, worry or anxiety that we develop as a result of our job affects our overall wellbeing.

Self-care also goes beyond the emotional level, the need to live healthy in every aspect be it physical, emotional, psychological or mentally generally improves our well-being.

3. Self-Care Improves Productivity

There is a correlation between happiness and productivity, while self-care isn’t directly linked to making you happier it makes you more aware of yourself as an individual and how to better improve as a person.

Understanding when to let go of tasks that makes you feel stressed or anxious will enable you to focus on more productive activities.

10 Ways To Better Care For Yourself As A Creative

Creatives are very busy people, we shared ten ways you can care better for yourself without disrupting the busy schedule you have planned out for the day.

We categorized each activity from mental, physical, spiritual or social needs to optimize your overall wellbeing.

You can implement these tips into your daily routine to keep you refreshed and energized.

1. Physical Self-Care 

• Use the stairs instead of an elevator, this improves physical health and enables you to schedule an exercise even with your busy routine.
• Eat healthily, the importance of a balanced diet to boost your immune system cannot be overemphasized it is easier to prevent avoidable sicknesses than go through treatment.
• Practice good sleep hygiene, an adult human needs 6-8 hours of sleep to feel energized.
• Become aware of your stressors and know when to take a break.

2. Mental Self-Care

• Practice mindfulness to help you become more aware of your own patterns and improve concentration.
• Listen to your favourite podcast or TV show that keeps you inspired.
• Try a new activity to improve your esteem level.

3. Social Self-Care

• Learn to say no to activities or people that strain you.
• Live and create a memorable experience with your friends and family.
• Go out, network and meet new people, you can be the best at what you do but you need people to endorse and showcase your work to.

Conclusion

It isn’t just sufficient to understand what self-care is and its importance of it, to fully begin to practice self-care, you need an action plan to keep you motivated.

While self-care seems like an unachievable task, it is doable by finding small time windows to allocate your desired activity.

Don’t forget to share this blog with another creative, if it was helpful.