Having the self-care mindset to managing your health is essential.
Over the years, a multitude of misconceptions has arisen, creating many issues for us. These include false ideals such as skin cancer is caused by exposure to sunlight, food has no nutritional value anymore, illness is a mystery, and so on. These myths have caused us to take the wrong approach towards our well-being.
The medical world is incredible when it comes to life-threatening and emergency situations –it saves lives and helps people attain comfort when they are in extreme pain. But I see the medical team as the fire service for the human body–it saves the day and rescues us, but once the fire is out, it’s time for it to leave and for us to clean up, rebuild, and repair. Basically, there is no need for the fire service anymore. After all, what good would our efforts to rebuild and recover from the devastation be if it returned and hosed down the house every week? At the end of the day, if you rely solely on what the medical industry tells you about your diet, habits, and medication, you will do more harm than good to your health. Although it is difficult, you have to find the balance.
On top of that, people always say that if you think positively, the best will happen to you. The same principle applies when we talk about a self-care mindset. When you decide that, ultimately, your health is in your own hands and you need to direct all your efforts into making the right choices, the course of your life will change entirely.
To make this easier, let’s talk about how exactly you can go about developing a self-care mindset.
Learn to focus on every aspect of your life
The concept that a person’s health is affected by more than just the physical condition of their body is something most of you are probably already aware of.
To achieve the greatest level of self-care, your financial, mental, physical, social, and emotional conditions must all be in order as they are all interconnected.
A job which stresses you out too much, leading to financial instability, or a person in your life who makes you unhappy, leading to emotional instability, will directly influence all other aspects of your life, especially your health. Remove all such elements from your life.
Take steps to prevent disease
The impact your lifestyle has on your health is huge. However, most of us choose to ignore this fact of life, simply for some short-lived convenience. If you stay in air-conditioned rooms the whole day, for example, your body is sure to protest, leading to pain and aches, as our bodies aren’t made to tolerate such conditions.
To ensure your body isn’t exposed to conditions that lead to its deterioration, you need to change your way of life, starting with the following steps:
- Get as much fresh air as possible, especially early in the morning to ensure the air you breathe in has a minimal number of toxins.
- Drink a sufficient amount of water and you will see positive results in a short span of time.
- Go out in the sunshine as much as you can. You can do this by trying to walk short distances instead of using transportation.
- Incorporate exercise into your routine.
- Change your diet from meat and processed foods to whole foods.
- Cut toxic people out of your life – failing to do so is probably bringing you down more than you think possible.
- Don’t miss out on things in your life which you’re passionate about.
Your surroundings really matter
People often argue that they can’t change the places they live in or the quality of food available to them. Though there is truth in this statement, there are still many ways in which you can change the environment you exist in.
A stuffy apartment or an unhygienic home, for example, will definitely affect your health and increase susceptibility to disease. By taking out a small amount of time, you can look for ways to improve ventilation in your apartment and clean it thoroughly.
The aim in the right direction
To adopt a self-care mindset, the one thing you must do is believe that the changes you want to make are possible. A defeatist attitude will get you nowhere.
Planning is one thing which contributes massively to success. No matter how well-intentioned your efforts are, if they are haphazard, you won’t achieve anything. So, make a list and stick to it. Like I mentioned earlier, start with easier and smaller goals, and then, once you’ve reached them, start moving on to the bigger ones.
Start today!
It’s extremely easy to procrastinate and very difficult to make your time productive.
None of us can claim to always have our priorities sorted but the best thing to do now is to take a step in the right direction. When it comes to developing a self-care mindset, you’re embarking on a long and winding journey so it won’t be easy. Once you get started, however, there’s no going back. Make minimal changes in your life and then go on to making bigger ones. Sooner or later, you’ll start witnessing the improvements you’ve been wanting to see for a long time.
All these steps require a significant amount of commitment as you’re trying to alter your entire way of life. However, once you begin your journey on this road, the results of having a self-care mindset will speak for themselves.
