6 Effective Ways to Take Better Care of Yourself

The mistake that many of us make in life is that we fail to take good care of ourselves.  We take care of the needs of our employers, children, pets and spouses, but we forget to meet our own needs.  And in doing so, we are living life backwards.  Because self-care must come first.  In fact, learning how to take good care of yourself is one of the most important skills that you can develop.

Realize that life doesn’t work if you don’t take good care of yourself.  I know this because I went through a period in my life when I consistently put the needs of others before my own.  During that time, I allowed others to hijack my time and energy with their desires and demands.  And I ended up being miserable. 

What I learned is that when other people take up your time with their needs, you end up being frustrated.  And you become resentful of the folks who are abusing your time.  After all, the point of life isn’t to be miserable so that others can be happy. 

The key to living a successful life is to put your needs first and take care of you.  If you do that, then life clicks.  Because when you take care of you, then you can be happy and healthy.  And it’s from that place that you can be physically and emotionally able to help others. 

Below are ways to take better care of yourself.  Follow these approaches and become a happier and healthier version of you!

Cook Your Food from Scratch

One of the most important gifts that you can give yourself is to cook yourself healthy meals.  Realize that a poor diet is a recipe for all kinds of health problems.  If you eat a poor diet, you’ll gain weight unnecessarily.  Your organs won’t function optimally because you’ll likely be ingesting too much sodium.  And you won’t look your best because your skin will suffer from eating fried and processed foods.

Years ago, I used to think of cooking as a nuisance.  I thought to myself, “My goodness.  I would much rather sit and read a good book than spend an hour cooking a meal.”  However, now that I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that my decades of cooking have paid off!  I’m a much healthier person today because I spent years creating meals from scratch whenever possible.

Now, I’ll concede that cooking from scratch takes far more work than buying food from a restaurant or premade food from your grocery store.  But look at it this way:  You spend all day working for others.  At the end of the day, shouldn’t you devote an hour to you?  And when you cook a dish from scratch, you are spending time doing something for yourself (and, of course, the other folks who you are feeding). 

So, if you want to take better care of yourself, start by cooking healthy foods from scratch.  Cook nutritious dishes and give your body foods that will keep you healthy and fit for a very long time!

Go for Regular Check Ups at the Doctor and Dentist

No one likes going to the doctor or the dentist.  All that poking and prodding is unpleasant.  But regular medical checkups are a critical part of taking good care of yourself.

Now, you may say to yourself, “Well, I feel fine! I don’t need to go to the doctor.” The problem is that you can feel just great and still have a latent health issue. For example, I am the picture of health, and yet, it was only through a blood test ordered by my doctor that I found out that I have a minor health issue.

Staying healthy is something that we should be doing in partnership with our doctors and dentists.  Our job is to eat healthy foods and exercise regularly.  And we need to brush and floss our teeth.  Then the job of our doctor and dentist is to monitor our bodies and make sure that nothing becomes out of whack.

So, to the extent medical care is available to you, use it!  If you have access to a general practitioner and a dentist, see them regularly.  Preventive medical care is part of taking good care of YOU!

Be Physically Active

When we were kids, we moved all the time.  I remember being a young person and walking everywhere or riding my bicycle.  Being physically active is built into your daily life when you are young.  But as we get older, we become more sedentary. 

Unless you live in an urban area where you have to walk to work and to get groceries, physical activity is not built into your day.  Instead, you likely sit in a car when you commute to work.  And unless you have a job which requires physical activity, you likely do a lot of sitting in front of a computer during the day.  When our lifestyles are naturally sedentary, it’s critical that we find ways to incorporate physical activity into our day.   

There are a multitude of ways to make physical activity part of your day. You can walk up the stairs at work, versus taking the elevator. Or you can intentionally park far away from the grocery store entrance to get in a good walk. Some folks even have exercise equipment in their homes which they use either before or after work. They key is to find ways throughout the day to be active.

The benefit of regular physical activity is that it makes our bodies feel good!  Regular exercise helps us to stay limber.  It also helps us to keep off extra weight so that we can move with ease.  Moreover, regular physical activity improves our brain health and reduces our risk for depression.

The benefits of being physically active are numerous.  As a result, incorporating physical activity into your day is a gift that you need to give yourself.  So, set aside time each day to move!  Regularly stretch and exercise your body.  You only get one body in this lifetime, so be sure to treat it well!

Do Your Chores

Many folks misunderstand the value of chores.  They consider making their beds, doing dishes and cleaning the house to be unpleasant work.  Sadly, they don’t realize that doing chores is an important part of self-care.

Realize that caring for your environment is part of how you take care of yourself.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but you can’t be happy and relaxed if you are living in a dirty mess. 

In fact, what I’ve observed over the years is that there is a direct correlation between depression and people who don’t do their chores.  People who are depressed typically don’t take care of their personal space.  Because they don’t like themselves or their lives, depressed people often choose to not care for themselves by living with unmade beds, messy rooms and dirty dishes.

Realize that mentally healthy people are tidy people.  When we’re mentally healthy, we take care of our personal space.  We like ourselves enough that we want to want to live in an environment that is organized, clean and well-cared for.

So, take better care of yourself by being diligent about doing your chores.  Do whatever is necessary to ensure that your environment is one that is peaceful and enjoyable for you.

Limit Your Screen Time

One of the biggest challenges that we face these days is limiting our screen time.  For many of us, our jobs require us to look at screens all day.  And typically, we communicate with friends and family via texting on our phones.  Moreover, if we need information about nearly anything, we simply turn to our screens and do a Google search.  Screens are a ubiquitous presence in our lives.

But the problem with so much screen time is that it keeps us from fully experiencing life.  Part of self-care is finding ways to live life to the fullest.  You aren’t living life to the fullest if you are engrossed in what is happening on your phone, computer or television screen.  Rather, you’re simply observing what others are doing or saying. 

I’ll concede that it would be hard to completely disengage from the screens that are now an integral part of our daily lives.  But even so, portions of your day still should be devoted to “doing” rather than “observing.”  Doing involves non-screen activities, like cooking, cleaning, going for a walk, gardening, spending time with your pet, chatting with a friend over a cup of tea, etc.  Every day should include some “doing” activities.  That is because when you are “doing” you are “living.”

So, care for yourself by ensuring that you aren’t just looking at your screens from morning to night.  Do stuff!  Be in nature.  Create.  Care for your environment.  Engage with the physical world around you, and you’ll be happier and living your life to the fullest.

Care for Yourself, and Then Care for Others

One of the biggest mistakes that many of us make is to martyr ourselves for the benefit of others.  I spent a period of my life doing exactly that.  I didn’t live the life that I wanted to live so that others could be happy.  And what I learned is that no good comes from that kind of sacrifice. 

If you sacrifice your time and happiness to benefit others, you’ll end up being miserable.  The better approach to life is to meet your own needs first.  When you do so, you then can care for others from a place of happiness.

Now, admittedly, sometimes meeting your own needs does involve caring for others.  For instance, when my daughter was small, caring for her gave me immense joy.  I loved spending time with her, reading stories to her, and having fun with her.  In fact, one of my greatest regrets in life is that I wasn’t in a financial position to be able to stay home with her fulltime during those early years.  But every hour that I was able to take care of her during those early years was truly a blessing to me.  So, certainly self-care sometimes involves the joy of caring for others.

But at other times, caring for yourself involves doing things just for you. There are weekends when I need to just take time for me. I may need a morning at the bookstore. Or an afternoon reading a book in my favorite chair. And after I have taken the time to take care of myself, only then am I in the right frame of mind to do things for others.

So, when it comes to self-care, it is critical to prioritize your time correctly.  You have to take care of your mental and physical well-being first.  Only then can you properly care for others.

If you are looking for ways to take better care of yourself, consider following the approaches above.  Self-care is the most important thing that we do each day.  It is only when we take great care of ourselves that we can be our best as we go out in the world. (To read more about the benefits of daily self-care, click here.)