Self-Care

Hi everyone! It’s a new week, so it’s time for a new post on the Center Street Psychology Blog! If this is your first time here, click back to see some of our other posts on attachment styles, communication tools, and goal setting. This week, we are going to discuss self-care.

Self-care is looking after ourselves so that we can be healthy, present, and engaged in what is happening in our lives. Self-care can include awareness, reflection, and intention while taking time to do activities for our mental and physical health. It can be something we dedicate time to do on a larger scale or doing things daily. Self-care does not have to be something that costs a lot of money or takes a lot of time. It means taking the time to recognize the activities that make you feel recharged, rested, and ready for whatever might come next.

Some self-care tips include:

 Engage all your senses: Consider how things like sound or smell can be integrated into your self-care routine. Essential oils, bath products, or things like a cup of coffee can be a way to engage your sense of smell, while sounds like music or white noise can be beneficial in regulating mood.

 Take a holistic approach: Self-care should encompass all four dimensions of health – mind, body, emotional, and spiritual. The mind could include things like attending therapy, meditating, or journaling; the body could include going for a walk or yoga, spiritual could include prayers or doing something that feeds your soul (for me, that’s going to concerts). The emotional could include having a conversation with a supportive person or connecting with a partner.

 Invest in yourself: Sometimes self-care can be something we push aside as unimportant or not something we need to do every day. However, including self-care daily means that you are being preventative and not reactive in stressful situations.

If you’d like to know more about self-care, or need some ideas, check out Caring for Your Mental Health, from the National Institute of Mental Health:
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/caring-for-your-mental-health

Please reach out to us at Center Street Psychology, as we provide uniquely tailored therapeutic plans and interventions to support you and collaborate on your personal wellness goals. We are an inclusive clinic, located in Calgary, Alberta that provides in-person and virtual psychological services across Canada in the evenings and weekends. Please text or call 403-399-5120 to talk to our Director of Client Care, Amy, who will guide you through the intake process.

Written by: Lindsay Mcnena