Self-Care is extremely important in everyday life for people of all ages. According to psychcentral.com, “Self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Although it's a simple concept in theory, it's something we very often overlook. Good self-care is key to improved mood and reduced anxiety.” Everyone needs self-care. Examples could be hobbies that you like to do. You can do things that you love such as reading a book, drawing, dancing, shopping, or even sleeping to relieve stress. Like meditation, you could do simple breathing exercises to relieve stress. |
According to medlineplus.gov, “Stress is a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It can come from any event or thought that makes you feel frustrated, angry, or nervous. Stress is your body's reaction to a challenge or demand.” Stress can affect everyone of all races, genders, and ages. Sixty-three percent of Americans are dealing with stress that is caused by violence or crime, money, or work. Sadly, 110 million people die each year due to stress, which means 7 people die every 2 seconds. Without self-care you will suffer with stress, which could lead to depression. Doing the things you love would relieve the stress and bring happiness. Doing simple things like exercising, writing in a journal, or even cooking could take your mind off stress and bring you happiness.
Self-care is something that everyone needs to have. What is self-care exactly? It’s extremely self-explanatory. It’s caring for yourself. Self-care is the way in which you treat yourself. Without giving yourself the respect, positive/proper treatment, and admiration, you are not capable of having any of those things for anyone else. In order to ensure that you can be at your fullest potential and have self-care, you have to have the ability to trust yourself and respect your own interests. You have to know when you’re sacrificing an aspect of yourself in order to do something that’s good for you versus getting rid of something that keeps you going in order to please someone. You have to be able to make sure you are in a comforted state and make sure you aren’t stressing. How do you reach self-care or how can you care for yourself in a world filled with stress? Everyone needs to understand that we are all human and we all have emotions. When I am caring for myself, I put my needs and wants out in the open. I determine what is most important to me. Sometimes it’s okay to think about yourself because if you focus too much on helping others and not helping yourself, you may become extremely dependent, rather than independent. Not focusing on yourself is extremely detrimental to a person. It’s detrimental to your mental and physical health and to the relationships that you have. (Joshlyn)
Here are some examples of how we practice self-care:
● “For self-care, I like to go shopping. It is really fun to do and love creating new outfits. When I'm really stressed I like to shop to get my mind off the situation.”
● “When I’m stressed, I like to sleep. Sleeping really relieves my stress and it’s relaxing.”
● “For self-care, I like to make myself feel good by doing my hair to make me feel pretty.”
● “I like to spend time with people I love like family and friends. Being around people I love makes me feel like I’m not alone. It makes me relax and forget my other issues.”
● “For self-care, I like to either play something to keep me active or I play video games because that’s what makes me happy. It shows you have a high level of self-care for yourself if you try to keep yourself happy. ”
● “For self-care, I like to listen to music and I like to read books that keep me focused! This helps me not to be angry or anxious. It helps me to be calm/relaxed.”
● “For self-care, I like to listen to music, play a game, or go play basketball. Depending how mad I am, sometimes I go workout.” A helpful Self-Care Assessment is located at the end of the book.
Here are some examples of how we practice self-care:
● “For self-care, I like to go shopping. It is really fun to do and love creating new outfits. When I'm really stressed I like to shop to get my mind off the situation.”
● “When I’m stressed, I like to sleep. Sleeping really relieves my stress and it’s relaxing.”
● “For self-care, I like to make myself feel good by doing my hair to make me feel pretty.”
● “I like to spend time with people I love like family and friends. Being around people I love makes me feel like I’m not alone. It makes me relax and forget my other issues.”
● “For self-care, I like to either play something to keep me active or I play video games because that’s what makes me happy. It shows you have a high level of self-care for yourself if you try to keep yourself happy. ”
● “For self-care, I like to listen to music and I like to read books that keep me focused! This helps me not to be angry or anxious. It helps me to be calm/relaxed.”
● “For self-care, I like to listen to music, play a game, or go play basketball. Depending how mad I am, sometimes I go workout.” A helpful Self-Care Assessment is located at the end of the book.
Mental Health Mental health is a need that is not focused on like it should be. There are not enough mental heath hospitals or mental health offices for people who need help. There’s also not enough resources for the people. I feel like it should be easier to get these things and I feel mental health is undervalued a lot in our society. I think that if it were more focused, that would prevent a lot of people from snapping out because of mental health concerns. No one can handle everything, and sometimes we can’t handle certain situations and we are in need of someone who specializes in these issues. But, there's not many places around that can help, let alone lend some resources. I feel this isn’t something that should be overlooked and this relates to Article 25 of “The Human Declaration Of Human Rights,” which states that everyone has the right to a standard of adequate living that includes proper clothes, housing, food, and medical care.
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According to a Mental Health America report from 2015, over 44 million American adults have a mental health condition. Since the release of this report, there have only been a slight decrease in the number of adults who have a mental health condition (from 18.19% to 18.07%). I feel like these mental health concerns affect people in poverty. Someone in poverty might have poor mental health because these people are going though a lack of resources, stress, frustration, and sometimes they encounter violence. (Gabe)