8 ways to practise self-care in quarantine
Updated: May 16, 2020
Quarantine sucks but your daily routine doesn’t have to.
What is self-care and why is it important?
Self-care is something we do to better our mental or physical health. If we were to guess examples of self-care activities to improve physical health, it would be easy to think of going to the gym regularly to exercise, drinking water and eating a balanced diet. Caring for our mental health and emotional wellbeing, however, can be much harder to understand.
In the new age of social media, we see images of happy people sipping overpriced herbal teas, wearing golden face masks and painting their nails, telling us that this is the ultimate form of self-care, but this is not always the case. This is not to undermine the importance of relaxation in self-care, especially for students or those with stressful jobs who may greatly benefit from a night under thick covers binge-watching a new television season or reading a book and taking a hot bath.
Such relaxing activities are important for everyone to practise from time to time, but other forms of self-care can involve intense self-reflection for the long-term benefit of better understanding and improving ourselves.
"I believe depression is legitimate. But I also believe that if you don't exercise, eat nutritious foods, get sunlight, get enough sleep, consume positive material [and] surround yourself with support, then you aren't giving yourself a fighting chance." - Jim Carrey
Small but important ways to practise self-care
Coming out of your room most days during the week
As important as it is to enjoy nights in your bedroom, it is equally important to not imprison yourself indoors and go outside from time to time to get fresh air and sunlight. The benefits of going outside, even if only for a short ten-minute walk, include relieving stress, improving short term memory and fighting nature deficit disorder. General exposure to sunlight for ten minutes a day has also been shown to better our mood by increasing the levels of feel-good hormones such as serotonin in the brain.
Showering and practising good hygiene everyday
Although seemingly small, practising good hygiene everyday can be a good mood booster and a way to care for your physical health.
Eating everyday
Despite the effects of deep sadness and depression that may cause us to have a lack of appetite, it is important and recommended that we eat three times everyday to ensure nutritional health. Whilst I could go on about the importance of eating healthily to reduce risk of diabetes and high blood pressure, it is equally important that you know that you deserve to eat. Your body needs food and you deserve to receive something that you need and makes you happy.
Challenging negative thoughts
The greatest thing I have learned from years of counselling is the ability to challenge irrational negative thoughts and not let them take over my mind. As a simple example, let’s start off with a common negative thought.
“I’m stupid”
At some point, we all use this insult towards ourselves and can sometimes fall into the trap of believing it and letting our conversation with ourselves end there, encouraging feelings of self-hatred and sadness. When challenging negative thoughts, however, we would ask ourselves:
“Why would I think that? What evidence do I have to support that?”
Perhaps you failed a test or made a mistake doing something. Maybe you said the wrong thing to someone or broke an object.
“This one action doesn’t mean I’m stupid. I made a small mistake like everyone in the world does at some point and I can make it better by…”
Going a step further, you may even think of examples to prove the statement wrong. What are some examples or how SMART you are?
With practise, the skill of challenging negative thoughts becomes habit.
Meditate or deep breathing exercises for at least five minutes
Personally, among many other things, meditation was an important part of my self-care routine when suffering from depression, and since recovering it continues to be a valuable part of my life as it enables me to relieve stress as I clear my mind. Meditation is effectively a set of techniques to encourage a heightened state of awareness and focused attention. Personally, I do this by:
Wearing comfortable clothes
Choosing a comfortable environment such as my bed or somewhere on the floor
Sitting in a comfortable position with my legs crossed and my back straight
Closing my eyes and taking slow deep breaths
With every breath, focusing on the rising and falling of my chest and relaxing my body, starting from the head downwards
Visualising myself in a stress-free environment, such as on a warm beach
Effects of meditation and deep breathing include stress and anxiety reduction, lengthened attention span and reduction of age-related memory loss.
Taking a selfie to keep
When you feel beautiful, whether its wearing your favourite outfit or simply at a moment where you felt truly happy, capturing this memory in a photo that you can look at whenever you feel down can be a great mood booster.
Daily affirmations and complimenting yourself
Currently, every morning I set affirmations for the day by thinking things like ‘today will be a productive day’ or ‘I will learn from my mistakes’ or ‘I will accomplish a new goal today’. Practising compliments such as finding three things I like about my appearance in the morning before I leave the house are also helpful ways in which I boost my mood.
Doing something that scares you
Whether its wearing that top that you’ve been afraid to put on or joining that dance class you were too shy to sign up to, venturing out of our comfort zone can allow us to gain new experiences that often make us set new comfort zones as we begin to enjoy new things
Other ways to practise self-care
Saying no to things you don’t want to do.
When you’re upset, imagine how you would advise a friend who was in the same situation
Keeping a diary
Letting go of people in your life who are draining, negative or not benefiting your life
Learn a new skill
Do you agree with this post? Any points I forgot? Tell me what you think in the comments! Don't forget to like this post, share your favourite and subscribe to this blog to get news about new posts!