Self-care refers to tasks that care for your mental, physical, emotional, social and spiritual health. Tasks can be from any one of these areas, and many can overlap into a few.

Self-care is an essential part of our well-being and happiness, in fact, you probably do a lot more self-care than you realise. And even better than that, with only a few simple steps, you can make almost any task into a self-care habit.

Self-care can be beneficial for both your self-esteem and health. There are many options for self-care that benefit our bodies, in fact, tasks such as exercise will help both self-esteem and physical and mental health.

How does self-care help our self-esteem?

Self-care not only refers to tasks such as exercise and healthy eating but also things like skin care, morning routines and sleep schedules. You may be wondering how any of this helps your self-esteem. Let's break it down.

Our skin

Your skin's health and condition can often lead to low or high confidence. People that suffer from acne have more than likely to go through a phase of low self-worth. Whereas people with blessed skin (can you tell this was not me? Yeah, I envied those teenagers… and adults currently. Ahhh acne, how do I get rid of you for good?) are much less likely to go through low self-esteem due to their skin.

Our sleep

Rest and energy levels can be our best friend or our worst enemy. If you have adequate sleep on a regular basis, you are more than likely ready to take on the world, or at least, your day. If you struggle to get adequate sleep and find yourself tired often, even the smallest tasks can be a challenge. The more tasks you struggle with can lead to low self-worth.

Our morning routines

And the last area we are going to break down is morning routines. Now, this can apply to nighttime routines or weekend routines. Most people only have a set amount of time in the morning before heading off to work, and yet what do you spend the morning doing? Do your morning tasks bring you joy? If not, why are you doing them? Instead, try eating yummy cereal, watching an episode of your favourite show, or picking up a coffee on the way to work. Do activities that make you excited to get up in the morning.

The list of self-care options is so vast and there are so many ways to boost your self-esteem through self-care.

I have limited free time, can I do self-care with other people?

Absolutely you can. If you are a social butterfly and find that your time alone is few and far between, try doing some self-care with other people. This may seem detrimental to some, to those introverts like myself who cherish alone time, but there are many people out there who just love to be around their friends all the time.

There are so many ways to do self-care with other people, plan a self-care day, go on a trip with a friend or go out for a healthy lunch. There are also options for self-care that don't only help yourself, but other people, both friends and strangers.

How do I teach self-care to my kids?

I love saying that self-care is for everyone, and what's better than teaching self-care to your children? Doing self-care with them! There are so many ways to do self-care with others, just like there are many ways to do self-care by yourself.

Self-care printables

One of my favourite ways to do self-care is with self-care printables. Printables are a great way to help get your kids into self-care, you can fill out printables with them, and you can find out their favourite way to do self-care.

Printables are a great way to bond with your kids, spend time with them and help them understand themselves better.

Self-care doesn't judge

I've said it once, and I'll say it a hundred more times, self-care is for everyone. I am a strong advocate for making sure everyone around me is partaking in some form of self-care, the version that they enjoy.

I live with 3 other adults and all of our self-care looks completely different to each other, and that's what's important to remember. An introvert's self-care will look different from that of an extrovert. A teenager's self-care will look different from an elder's self-care.

So what's holding you back from starting self-care now? You. Only you.