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Emotional self-care should be a part of everyone’s life. It is now finally accepted worldwide that mental stability is essential for a person’s sound and positive energy. Emotional self-care is a crucial part of maintaining your mental strength.1
Once we are sure that our emotional and mental stability is in a perfect state, we live our life to the fullest.
Knowing yourself is a gift that, unfortunately, most of us lack. We are busy making time for others and focusing on our physical appearances, but we always forget that looks fade away with time; it is the emotions that stay with us till the end.
Meaning of Emotional Self-Care
If we are emotionally strong and mentally stable, we can face any obstacle in life with courage and strength. Therefore, having emotional stability and knowing your emotional needs is a must. So how do we get our emotional stability?
We get it by practising emotional self-care as a habit. Emotional self-care is the provision of identifying your feelings and nurturing your inner state.
In simple words, emotional self-care is about understanding your inner state, feelings, and emotions and honouring your feelings. It is all about knowing your state of mind and being in a loving relationship with it.
14 Ways to Practice Emotional Self-Care
Emotional self-care is not present in us naturally. There are very few chances of having a habit of emotional self-care naturally without any external help or self-help.
So, we need to practice emotional self-care for people like us and turn it into a habit, just like eating healthily.
Having a stressful life does not mean you have to be mentally or emotionally unstable. Therefore, here we are stating some ways through which you can practice emotional self-care and fall in love with yourself all over again:
1. It is Okay to Not to Be Okay
No matter how you feel, sad, angry, or happy, you must know you are okay to feel. Identifying and nurturing your feelings, your conscious inner state, and your intellect is the initial step to practice your emotional self-care.2
“It is okay to not be okay” is not just a statement; it is a commitment to yourself. There is nothing wrong with you being not okay with things and certain situations in life. You are unique, and you deserve to keep your opinion in a certain way.
2. Self-love is Not Selfish
Loving yourself and choosing yourself is not selfish. Choosing yourself over others does not make you mean, or it does not prove that you care less. Doing things that please others and make you uncomfortable is useless.
When we have people depending on us, we sometimes forget to please them and bring a smile to their faces. We must remember that if we are not happy, positive, and cheerful, no one will be happy.
So, start loving yourself and take some time out for yourself. Trust us, and you need it.
3. Set Your Boundaries
Do not be available for everyone at any time. Learn to set your boundaries and stick to them. No matter how much you do, sometimes it is just not enough. So better set your limits and stick to them.
Boundaries are like a milestone when you learn to practice emotional self-care. When you do not have self-love in you, setting boundaries might come with difficulty.
Be comfortable in saying no to things that you do not want to do. It would help you to set proper boundaries.
4. Do Not Let Others’s Thoughts Affect You
People gossip about everything. Even if you are perfect, they will still find something in you. When you stop thinking about what others think, half of your life gets sorted.
Surround yourself with people who support you, trust you, and have a positive impact on your life. Once you have learned the ability to ignore people, there is no chance to have a proper emotional self-care routine.
5. Go in for Meditation Regularly
Meditation plays a vital role in the process of your emotional self-care. It helps you connect to your inner thoughts. It helps in giving you the power to calm yourself in difficult situations in your life.
Meditation not only benefits your mental stability but also benefits in keeping your body fit and healthy. Doing meditation makes you develop the ability to control and feel your emotions efficiently.
6. Write a Journal
Maintaining a journal and writing helps you analyze and feel your emotions to the fullest and makes you understand the difference between right and wrong yourself. Writing a journal helps you in getting control of your feelings.
When you have a habit of writing a journal, you are less prone to assume things independently. It is one of the most effective practices in the process of emotional self-care.
Once you start writing it and regularly doing it, you will be surprised by the results.
7. Practice Self-Forgiveness
You are not a saint or god. You are human, and humans make mistakes. You should learn to forgive yourself if something wrong happens to you. Forgiving yourself is the most difficult and crucial step in emotional self-care.
In the same way, stop apologizing every time, even when you are not wrong. It is a major step in practising self-forgiveness. So, stop pitying yourself and start loving yourself to the fullest.
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8. Never be Shy to ask for Help
If you do not feel emotionally stable, there is nothing wrong with accepting that. Sometimes it is not about your strength or weakness or your ego. It is just about your health. Asking for help does not make you weak it rather makes you strong.
When you learn to ask for help in need, it helps cross a milestone in the journey of practising emotional self-care. Sometimes you feel full of emotions, not because you are weak, but because you are trying to handle everything yourself.
So, start sharing; it helps you to grow.
9. Rest is Must
After a full day of a hectic schedule, resting and sparing some time for yourself is nothing wrong. We know you are very busy in your life, and you have tons to do, but you have to have some rest too.
Having proper rest and time for yourself makes you physically healthy and emotionally strong and a support system in the process of emotional self-care.3
10. Make a Habit to do Activities You Love Daily
Having a habit that you love and doing it makes your life happier and simpler. We know rest is important but doing something you love is equally important for your emotional health.
It helps in making your mind relax and your mood happier. Trust us when you start doing the activity you love; you will be surprised how healthy and happy it will make you feel.
11. Always Be Satisfied and Grateful
Being satisfied and grateful in life for whatever you possess is the biggest achievement, and it is the best practice to follow in emotional self-care. Some people have the habit of cribbing all the time, which results in them having a stressed and emotionally unstable life.
When you feel satisfaction and gratitude in life, nothing can stop you from living an amazing life full of peace and happiness.
12. Accept you are Beautiful
Oh yes! You are beautiful. When you accept it, no one, legit no one can make you feel bad about yourself. Accepting that you are beautiful is like a key to emotional self-care.
Never be too hard on yourself. We love the way you are. We know that beauty lies in a person’s mind. For the right person, you are the most beautiful person in the whole world. So never think less of yourself.
13. Music is The Best Self Therapy
Listening to music never fails to uplift your mood. Many know that music is the best therapy to boost your mood. Once you start hearing music, you end up in a different world.
In every situation, be it a birthday, party, heartbreak, or religious gathering, music plays a vital role. So how can it just stay back in emotional self-care? You can even have different playlists for different moods.
14. Start Learning from Your Mistakes
When we do not learn from our mistakes and start feeling shit about it, it becomes one of the major reasons for our emotional breakdown. We all are humans, and humans make mistakes. We all make mistakes, but when we do, we forget that it is natural.
There is nothing we can do after it happened. Rather than blaming ourselves for the whole time, make sure you learn from it and keep it past it. It is one of the major and most important steps when you practice emotional self-care.
Key Takeaways
Emotional self-care must be your permanent habit as it encourages you to grow as a person and lets you enjoy your “only” life to the fullest. Self-care is important, be it emotional or any other.
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- Kaufman, Karen. “Maintaining Our Strength.” (2023). ↩︎
- Vivian, Elaina, et al. “A cross-sectional study of perceived stress, mindfulness, emotional self-regulation, and self-care habits in registered nurses at a tertiary care medical center.” SAGE Open Nursing 5 (2019): 2377960819827472. ↩︎
- Bressi, Sara K., and Elizabeth R. Vaden. “Reconsidering self care.” Clinical Social Work Journal 45 (2017): 33-38. ↩︎
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