Have you ever really wondered what self-care was, and if it might be good for you and your mental health? May is Mental Health Awareness month, and it is important to make the time to take care of yourself. Self-care is the practice of taking care of your physical, mental, and emotional health. It can include activities that improve your mood, reduce stress, and promote positivity.
Benefits
Self-care can help you:
Examples
Some examples of self-care include:
Importance
Self-care is important because it can help you live a happier and healthier life. It’s often the first thing that gets neglected when you’re in challenging situations, so it’s important to take the time to prioritize it.
When to Seek Help
If you’re having trouble managing your situation on your own, you can:
Book Recommendations:
Facing the Unseen by Damon Tweedy
From the New York Times bestselling author of Black Man in a White Coat comes a powerful and urgent defense of psychiatry and mental health care. As much as we all might wish that mental health problems, with their elusive causes and nebulous presentations, simply did not exist, millions of people suffer, sometimes to an extreme extent. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that about twenty percent of U.S. adults live with a mental illness each year. And yet the practice of psychiatry, and psychiatrists themselves, are often derided, challenged, and their work seen as nothing but pill-pushing.
A comforting and useful resource for anyone who’s struggling emotionally and looking for help―from the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit that addresses the needs of those living with mental illness. It can be extremely hard to figure out what’s going on in our own heads when we are suffering—when we feel alone and unworthy and can’t stop our self-critical inner voice. And it’s even more difficult to know where to go for answers.
Move: How Physical Activity Helps Maintain Mental Health by James Roland
This book refers to the concept that engaging in regular exercise and physical activity can significantly improve mental well-being by releasing feel-good chemicals in the brain, reducing stress, boosting self-esteem, improving sleep quality, and providing a positive distraction from negative thoughts, effectively helping to prevent or manage mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.
Real Self-Care by Pooja Lackshmin
From board-certified psychiatrist and women’s mental health specialist Pooja Lakshmin, MD, comes a long-overdue reckoning with the contradictions of the wellness industry and hands-on strategies for practicing real and lasting self-care.
Art For Self-Care by Jessica Swift
Discover the healing power of making art—learn how you can process feelings of stress, change, uncertainty, grief, and fear as you create.
In Art for Self-Care, artist, designer, and online instructor Jessica Swift outlines a path to healing through artmaking for both artists and non-artists alike.
Strengthen your relationship with your inner voice and begin to change your life, one piece of art at a time.
