Redefining Self-Care: What It Is Beyond Relaxation

In 2024, it’s time to flip the script. Given we’ve all experienced hellish days with the pandemic and every other health complication, it’s about time we’re caring for ourselves better by redefining self-care.

The world might have seen improved and stronger human service and healthcare sectors as a result of what it has experienced in the past years. However, ideal health shouldn’t always have to rely on these services and outside assistance. It must be cultivated within.

This is precisely why there has been a constant call for everyone to practice self-care and ensure they stay healthy without spending money.

What Is Self-Care Anyway?

In its essence, self-care is the practice of looking after yourself so you don’t only survive but thrive in life. This then makes the concept pretty individualistic. After all, people define their successes and luxuries differently. Hence, someone’s self-care routine may not necessarily align with another.

A quick search of the term would pull up countless different recommendations and definitions. You will either be advised to enroll in a yoga class, cut half of your current food intake, or get a message. Doing either of these is equivalent to self-care, but partaking solely in relative activities doesn’t fully encompass what the concept is about.

When it comes to describing self-care, it’s time to step outside the sphere of relaxation and pampering. Redefining self-care means digging deeper into what people actually need beyond a good body, glowing skin, and leisure time.

What is the Core of Self-Care?

To better organize what self-care should mean for you, it’s beneficial to not only look at the concept through its general lens.

It’s easy to comprehend what self-care is as an extensive topic. It’s about caring for oneself and making life worthwhile. However, this perspective makes the term binary: you’re either caring for yourself or not. You’re either seizing life or not. This outlook can be motivating. It encourages people to do so.

But when they fall off the wagon, even just for a single day, this leads to guilt.

When self-care is perceived as something rigid and all-or-nothing, it becomes less sustainable and more frustrating. Redefining self-care is about making it as free as one defines it. The only way it should be rigid is when you focus on planning it for yourself and nobody else.

Self-care care should be yours. It shouldn’t be what the internet tells you to do or what others advise you to be. Instead, it should be a practice you’ve curated and reflected on.

Redefining Self-Care. How Should It Be Done?

Gone are the days when self-care was about lighting candles and bathing oneself in scented baths. It’s not about going on spa weekends and receiving regular massages. In redefining self-care, we are realigning what means most to us, and that is beyond relaxation and pampering. Instead, self-care should be about avoiding burnout and being our best selves.

This new approach to self-care goes beyond leisurely activities for temporary pleasure and involves doing more for your mind, soul, and spirit.

To Recharge

Everyone needs time for themselves. But in a world where the busy is most benefited and being hardworking to the point of exhaustion is rewarded, rest can easily slip out of one’s grasp.

In this new approach to self-care, you’re encouraged to let go of feeling guilty for simply resting. This doesn’t make you lazy or a bad worker. Taking the time to recharge won’t take years off your life and much from your productivity. But what this does is make a difference. You may even notice how, after recharging, you begin to think more clearly and have better ideas in mind.

Whether this is about taking a day off or going on that cruise, recharging can be a lot of things. But it must be done without carrying guilt for choosing so.

To Set Boundaries

Redefining self-care goes beyond listing activities to do. Often, this also entails thinking of things to not do. Allow yourself to step back, say no, and practice prioritizing yourself. Whether you admit it or not, a fraction of your mind is a people-pleaser. There’s a voice at the back of your head urging you to prove your worth and capacity to others.

Taking care of yourself can mean prioritizing your comfort over someone else’s demands. This can be very challenging to practice. It can be uncomfortable saying no to someone’s favor. But ultimately, you have to put yourself first. Helping others isn’t a sin, but doing so shouldn’t compromise your well-being. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

To Nurture Your Spiritual Side

An ever-prevalent misconception about self-care is that it’s done to improve one’s physical and mental condition. This is why pampering and relaxation are the standard ways of doing so. But redefining self-care encourages you to look deeper and nurture more aspects of life. This includes your spiritual side. You can do so by meditating or regularly attending religious services. Self-care doesn’t always have to be about pampering. Often, it’s about doing acts that can strengthen your virtues.

If you’re interested in reading more about how self-care should be, you can check out Christina Trezevant McGriff’s books Simultaneously and From Small to Tall. Be updated about her by following her on Facebook, Pinterest and Tumblr.