Introduction:

Before going to the main topic, let me tell you a small but very important story. An experienced apple grower once being greedy  started spraying some chemicals on apples before ripening to make the apples look fresh and beautiful. After several sprays, the apples became shiny, and the farmer’s heart became full of joy, becouse he can now market them at a much higher price than before. 

self-care-by-santanu

Finally he picked them up for ripening and make them ready for marketing. The wholesaler came and saw the apples, while bargaining, the wholesalers checked the quality of the apples and found them of low quality. He did not buy at a higher price, instead the farmer was compelled to sell the apples at a much lower price. The farmer began to huff and puff, thinking with his head in despair that if he had taken care of the roots of the tree without sprinkling chemicals on the fruit, he would not have been in such great danger, he would not have had to suffer from such a great financial loss. 

This story teaches us a great lesson. We do the same with our lives, for self-care we use marketed creams on our face or body, wear expensive watches and clothes, insist on hair cutting and hair dressing, all these are like spray to make apples shiny but low in quality.

What self care really means:

Self care is not about polishing yourself from the outside, self care is about taking care of yourself from the inside, taking care of yourself physically and mentally. Self-care, however, is considered an an integral part of luxury. In fact, not only that, self care is actually a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted process that helps to maintain mental, physical and emotional well-being, so that you can remain stable under pressure, overcoming life’s obstacles and challenges. It can be luxury if you change your looks externally, but self care means taking care of yourself so that you can maintain your physical health, mental health and Mental Wellness. Without maintaining good health in both physical and mental you will not be able to perform better in your work, to maintain any good relationship. That’s why I said ‘If you don’t take care of yourself, you will be burden to someone else.’ 

Of course, self-care includes taking care of your clothes, your appearance, and it is also useful primarily to boost your self-esteem and self-confidence. Not only this, but this kind of self-care generates a positive feeling in itself, also another very important thing is that people are initially attracted to your out looks and judge you, then they may want to know your quality, whether you are even the Person of Deserving or not!

Is self care is important:

If you don’t care of your health, of your Mental Wellness, after certain age, you will be the burden to someone else or to you. To keep up with the times, you will have to be very careful, becouse day by day work pressure, economic pressure, sense of responsibilities are increasing along with new diseases are emerging. To cope with all these, to sustain yourself, to make a meaningful life, to fill it with happiness and prosperity, you need to take care of yourself, to maintain good physical and mental health.

Outlook has value up to a level, but then you have to be verified by someone. There is a lot of gold glitters but they rarely come close to the price of pure gold. Its value is not determined by its luster, the value of gold is determined by checking its purity, if alloy is mixed, the value is reduced. In the same way, if you never become pure gold by not taking care of yourself, when you get hit somewhere, your body will either not support you, or you will break down mentally.

Why self care is important for mental health?

Our body and mind together form a system by which we are guided, affecting one of these two naturally affects the other.  Immunity is built up in our body to fight against most diseases so it is important to take care of yourself physically. If the body is weak or sick mind can never set to do anything though there is skill. 

Likewise, ‘the better you take care of your mind the more motivated you will be’ to do something.  Mental health will help you to overcome any obstacles. Self-care can easily help to overcome mental obstacles like grief, suffering, pain, stress, depression.  Not only this, it also greatly reduces the risk of getting sick. 

No matter what success you’ve achieved, no matter what you’ve had recently, it’s almost impossible to enjoy it without mental health, and there’s no other way than self-care that can help you maintain long-term mental health.

How self-care reduces Mental challenges:

Basically we face mental challenges because of our personal internal representation of any event, what actually we are giving meaning to any situation in our life, how any event from the external world is getting register in our mind!

For an example, you are calling your lover for several time and she/he is not picking up your phone. You may perceive that she or he is ignoring you, is not careful to you. This kind of perception disturb you, give you mental pain. In fact it may not be true, he/she may have been taking rest or doing important something else by muting the Phone. 

The meaning your mind will give to an event depends entirely on your belief system, your values, your past experiences, your meta program and your mental and physical state at that particular moment or time. If you really take care of yourself the way you see the outside world will change, your belief will be much stronger, your values will change, you will be able to erase your past painful memories easily. Above all in terms of any situation you can remain steadfast and maintain resourcefull state. 

How to take Self-care:

Almost all of us are consciously aware of how to practice self-care best. But it is not only knowing, but to implement them in our life, we have to make them into our daily habits and for this some special methods can be adopted which I have mentioned here.

Keep doing exercises:

Self care should be taken by keeping at least twenty minutes of exercise in the daily routine and doing it regularly every day. Physical exercise and activities include morning walks, sports. Doing these on a regular basis will increase immunity, feel lighter and more relaxed, can sleep well, mind will be better.

Consuming a healthy, balanced diet is very important:

Drinking enough water and taking balanced diet according to body growth and weight is an important part of taking care. Tempting, spicy, junk food should be avoided, so that the problem of gas heartburn does not bring down your energy.

self care

Maintain Mental Wellness:

Another very important thing to take care of is to pay attention to mental health, maintaining Mental Wellness. Although it is a continuous process, following this method you will not be consumed by negative thoughts, you can keep your mind in a resourceful state at all times, and your self-efficacy will increase.

       Methods of maintaining Mental Wellness:

Meditate daily: 

Meditation calms the mind, improves observation skills, increases the tendency to react thoughtfully instead of reacting quickly, patience increases. This kind of personal evolution process has life-changing positive impact.

Being aware of one’s own conversation: 

What one speaks to oneself and to others determines one’s level of self-awareness, self-care. Just as your behaviours are the product of your innate thoughts, so your habits are the product of your internal and external dialogue. Use positive and influential words to you and other also.

Focus more on positive events:

It is natural that some events are negative and some events are positive. We cannot always avoid negative events, but when we focus more on positive events, the more good events will unfold before our eyes. 

It is very pleasant for you to get the news of how many beautiful innocent babies were born instead of how many people died in the hospital, it will increase your Mental Wellness. So why go to get the news of how many people have died?

Try to find positive aspects in any event:

Just as the bad aspects of something negatively affect our mind, the good aspects help us stay in a resourceful state, helping us to maintain a good mood. There must be both good and bad sides in every event. If you can find the positives, you will find the real logistics of maintaining Mental Wellness.