By now everyone has heard of the concept of self-care! Self-care can be defined as practicing or taking action to either preserve, or improve your health. Self-care is an important practice to ensure we can perform at our best in all areas of our life. Keep reading below for some examples of how you can practice self-care in the workplace (an environment that can often become very stressful!).
Emotional & Mental
Maintaining a positive state of mind is key in a stressful workplace environment! We can practice self-care to improve how our mind is feeling in a few ways. Asking for help when you need it is a great way to clear your mind. This can be either if you need clarification or don’t know how accomplish a task, or if you are overwhelmed and need to delegate tasks to someone else! You can also help clear your mind and practice self-care by working on breathing techniques. Sometimes all you need is 5 minutes to close your eyes, do some deep breathing and reset your focus!
Intellectual
Improving your brain health is one of the major components to self-care! You can do this at work by listening to a podcast that falls within your field of work, or continuing to take courses to brush up on some additional skills. Lifelong learning is one of the best things you can do to maintain a healthy brain, and it will translate to the workplace where you can bring your new knowledge. Keeping your workspace organized by putting items away when finished with them, and keeping a to do list and crossing items off upon completion will help to keep a clear mind and stay focused on what you need to accomplish each day!
Physical
Physical health is one of the biggest aspects of self-care. If we feel good physically, we can feel good mentally! Try going for a walk during your lunch break to get outside and move around! This will help you feel good physically and will also help to clear your mind! Making sure you are drinking enough water and packing a healthy lunch that includes proteins, fruits and vegetables will also help fuel you to keep working and feel good!
Social
We get it, work isn’t always the most social place in the world, but having conversations with colleagues during the day will help to boost your mood and can lower stress levels! Meeting new colleagues on their first day will help you to make a new friend and will help them feel welcome as well. You can also attend workplace social events outside of work and foster friendships in and out of the workplace. Having a solid network of friends and colleagues will help make work easier and will improve your mood!