What do you think of when you first hear the words self-care?
For many women, the first thing they think of is pampering themselves. Taking a bit of time to do something for themselves. Such as getting their hair done, nails done, getting a facial, getting a massage. This is generally what us women think of when we think of self-care.
We think of our favourite nail polish from the bathroom drawer, at home skin care routine with a facemask or a cucumber round on each eye, an occasional bubble bath if you have a bath, even a glass of wine after work. Maybe even just taking half an hour for yourself, without any demands from anyone. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this self-care but the error we’re making is thinking that self-care is solely external.
It’s not.
Self-care is comprised of many things – internal and the external. For the most part we’ve got the external figured out. We know how to look after our skin, we know how to sort out the parts of our appearance that we want to take care of but what we’re missing, and this is important, is the internal. By internal we mean your inner health and your mental health.
When we feel good, we tend to look better and when we look better, we usually feel better so it’s not a bad cycle to start working on.
Collectively we’ve taken a bit of a beating throughout 2020 and we’re not even halfway through. While we know it’s still a bit rocky, there’s nothing wrong with starting the repair work now.
So, what is self-care?
Self-care is an activity, any activity that we do, on purpose to take care of ourselves – mentally, emotionally and physically. Self-care sounds simple enough, but it’s so often overlooked especially by women because we find that life gets in the way. Maintaining a good relationship with yourself is key to self-care and can help with maintaining relationships with family and friends.
Did you know that self-care can lead to a reduction in anxiety and other mood related issues? It’s a good direction to head in. Essentially, good self-care refuels and refreshes us, rather than draining and taking from us.
Now, what isn’t self-care?
This one is hard to answer. The act of doing something like putting on the washing or cooking dinner isn’t exactly self-care but doing it even when we don’t want to means it’s done and is a necessary form of care. Not doing it simply because we don’t feel like it is not self-care (unless someone else is going to do it for you, then by all means, self-care away). Avoiding doing something and calling it self-care, is not self-care.
Self-care is not selfish, we are considering our needs and what is important to us so that we can care for ourselves and be our best, even if this gets put on the backburner because one of the kiddos has just scraped their knee. If you don’t take care of yourself then how can you be present to care for your loved ones?
In the modern world with all of it’s conveniences and fancy embellishments, sometimes, we just need to pause and hit reset so that we can start again and not get lost in the day to day to do lists.
How would NuWoman help with self-care?
NuWoman is all about balance. Hormonal imbalance will affect pretty much every woman at some point in their lives. Some are more pronounced than others. When your hormones are imbalanced some pretty crazy things can happen; skin goes woops and breaks out, stress goes through the roof, the mood swings are on a merry go round and we cry at the drop of a hat (crying over a puppy or kitten adoption post on Facebook doesn’t count). NuWoman works to counteract those issues that arise as they can be associated with your hormones and potentially hormonal imbalance.
With balanced hormones you begin the first step towards effective self-care as you are taking care of your inner health. This can then helps with your mental health which can then help with your emotional health. It really is a cycle, if a somewhat difficult cycle at times.
Check back next week to see what the next step in self-care is.
NuWoman 30 PLUS is available from
pharmacies, health food stores and Countdown Supermarkets nationwide.