Self-care refers to any opportunities used to take care of yourself, whether that’s setting and keeping a sleep schedule, turning down activities or requests for help when you are not in a good place to do so, or taking time for yourself through things like exercise or relaxation.
Examples of Self-Care
Self-care is something that should be done regularly for everyone. It is important to your overall mental health. Some examples include:
- Regular exercise
- Healthy eating
- Prioritizing sleep
- Finding joy
- Not overloading your to-do list
- Setting boundaries with people or behaviors that cause anxiety
- Challenging negative thoughts
- Talking to yourself with love
Self-care is a way to reduce your stress and improve your emotional and mental well-being.
Why is Self-Care Important for Mental Health?
There are several reasons why self-care is an essential component of good mental health.
Consider this:
- Self-care can help you manage stress by way of exercise healthy eating, and setting boundaries on things like social media time or friendships and relationships that seem to go one way only
- Self-care can help you increase your happiness
- Self-care routine sets you up for long-term success by increasing your adaptability to change and improving your emotional resilience
- Self-care can boost your mood, reducing anxiety or depression symptoms and increasing happiness
Self-care practices improve your recovery from setbacks, build stronger relationships, and help you reconnect with yourself.
Rest
Self-care is important for mental health because it provides you a chance to rest. The body and the mind need opportunities to rest and when we continue to give of ourselves and our time, or we fail to prioritize breaks and reflection, we take that rest away from ourselves.
With good mental health you need to balance things like work related stress, relationships, volunteerism, family, and self.
Self-Esteem
When you prioritize your self-care, you are prioritizing yourself. If you don’t take time to rest, to reflect, or to rebuild yourself, it often stems from a lack of self-esteem.
You need to know your value, what you bring to the table, and when it’s okay to say no to other people. This can help boost your overall confidence and mood, let you set limits with others, boost your relationships, and more.
Boundaries
One of the reasons self-care is so important for your mental health is that it allows you to set boundaries. Boundaries are an essential way for you to allow people opportunities to support you and form relationships with you but not take advantage of you or otherwise impede your mental health.
Being able to set boundaries stems from a place of understanding your worth, valuing your time, and prioritizing your needs where necessary.
Why is Self-Care Important for Mental Health Treatment at MCR?
When you start a men’s or women’s drug rehab and/or mental health program at Multi Concept Recovery, you get an innovative, customized approach to your program based on our values and professional dedication to helping you boost self-care while in treatment and after.
We know how important it is to prioritize self-care for your mental health on a regular basis.
However, it is even more important to prioritize proper self-care techniques when you are in recovery.
Recovery is a long-term battle, a lasting opportunity for change and improvement, but one that can come with increased risks of anxiety or depression, isolation, and setbacks.
When you learn to prioritize self care you put yourself in a position to bounce back from the challenges that often accompany recovery especially early in your recovery. You will find that you can bounce back from the setbacks more successfully.
You can also boost your emotional resilience, which can make it easier to overcome stress or setbacks and help you build better relationships with improved communication.
The right type of self-care lets you set boundaries on things that might be harmful to you and your recovery in long or large doses like:
- Declining an invitation to go out and celebrate a friend’s birthday at a bar where you know you might be triggered
- Prioritizing your sleep by not staying up all night watching television or scrolling through social media unnecessarily
- Keeping phone calls with a particularly critical or unsupportive family member to a minimum
- Taking time after a challenge or a setback to use things like CBT techniques and mindfulness for reflection and growth
We aim to give all of our clients the programs they need to treat the entire person and move forward in personal growth so that they can live an abundant life with good self-esteem, proper rest, and boundaries.
Call our team today at 1-866-957-3859 to learn more.
