International Self Care Day - Five Tips for Self Care

On July 24^th every year, we celebrate International Self Care Day. It is a day that provides a focus and opportunity to raise the profile of healthy lifestyle self-care programs around the world.

To celebrate this year, we are sharing five tips for self-care!

Self-care is the practice of taking care of yourself, physically and mentally. When you take care of yourself, you are better equipped to take care of yourself; you are better equipped to take care for other people in your life. There are small things that you can do on a daily basis that have been shown to lower the stress that you may be experiencing and help you live happier. The Buddhist monk, Haemin Sunim, recommends the following five tips to take care of yourself:

1. Take a deep breath and become mindful of the air moving into and out of your lungs. By slowing down, focusing on your breaths and trying to breathe more deeply, you will feel more centered and focused on the present.
2. Things will happen every day that you may find difficult or anxiety inducing, but try to accept these feelings. Your mind will be able to rest and in the long term, you will learn to cope better.
3. Write it down. When you are having feelings of stress, often the case is simply that there are too many thoughts going on inside your brain: tasks you have to compile, worries about people in your life, even what is for dinner tomorrow. If you write it all down, you will be able to visualize your list. From there, you should start with the easiest task to compile, which will give you momentum to work on the second task, and so on. This will help you to feel less overwhelmed.
4. Talk about it. Sometimes you just need an opportunity to talk about your problems with a close friend. Try to find a non-judgmental person that you are able to share with (and you never know when they might need an open ear to share with as well!)
5. Talk a walk. Breathing fresh air to clear your mind is a simple way to release stress. Moving around and using physical energy will allow you to relieve built-up mental energy.