Self-care is not a reward: Committing to yourself and to happiness
The most important strategy to improve and maintain both emotional and physical health is to…
Practice self-care
Many individuals today ignore it owing to a lack of time, which has a detrimental impact on the lives of those who do not prioritize themselves. Self-care should never be a reward and should always come first. Allowing yourself to eat, shower, or even use the restroom should ALWAYS take precedence over other responsibilities. This means that we, as individuals, must understand that some things must be placed on hold in order for us to adequately care for ourselves.
In this blog, I’ll discuss some strategies on self-commitment and how I’m altering my thinking to prioritize my goals and find happiness, especially when my doubts try to talk me out of doing something.
1. Appreciate the Life You Have and Have a Good Time
It’s natural to feel down sometimes, but do your best to enjoy your life. Create plans that give joy to you, such as spending time with your friends, family and even colleagues. Make sure you are connecting and communicating with your support system during holidays and lonely moments as this will uplift your spirits and give you peace and a positive mindset. In addition, take time for hobbies, academic pursuits, personal growth or career development opportunities, and other areas of interest that might bring joy to you.
2. Lessen Social Media Exposure and Make Sure you Take Some Breaks from it
A survey exploring social media patterns found that individuals who spent the most time on social media felt lonely, while those who spent the least time on it felt lonely too. Additionally, those who spent the most time on social media throughout the week felt the most lonely.
It is probably for this reason that you should consider giving yourself the gift of a social media detox or break, especially on days that make you feel sad. If you need to restore balance in your life, you can choose how long a break you need from social media. For example, you may want to take a one-month break and then limit your use to 30 minutes to 1 hour a day.
3. It’s VERY OKAY to Focus More on You
We are all very busy in different ways. It can be difficult to balance everything that happens in life. You shouldn’t feel that you have to do anything or do everything equally at the expense of your mental health. Putting yourself first is the most important thing you can do. For me, that MEANS focusing on my happiness.
Learning to value our visions, dreams and desires by setting realistic and attainable goals is the only way to achieve what we want.
4. Reset if You Must!
In order to find happiness, you may need a reset. A reset is a “button” for personal empowerment that you can press whenever you want to make some changes or if you plainly just want to re-align everything in your life. As a result of a reset, you can make changes in your everyday life in any way you want, at a pace that you can easily commit to. The only way to prevent striking a permanent setback is to push the reset button.
If you feel like your life is out of control and in constant chaos, it’s time to re-structure, re-think, and make new important decisions. Let go of judgment and be more in tune with yourself.
Making changes in one’s life requires a commitment to oneself, and you will not do that if you are trying to make these changes because other people think you should make them or because you think they will think more of you if you make them or perhaps you think others will think more of you if you make them, or you hate yourself and how you are.
Commitment has to come from you. This is something you must do FOR YOURSELF.
You have to do this because you WANT to, because you adore yourself, and because you want to make a change in yourself.
You need to do this for the long haul, take it slow. Commit. Long term. Become the person you want to be in that way real happiness will also find you.
