Self-care is a necessary practice for everyone, inside or outside of recovery.
Netflix and Chill: Proceed with caution if you are deciding to indulge in self-care via a Netflix binge session. Some studies have indicated that you can feel depressed after a Netflix binge and that sending too much time sitting and watching television is bad for your overall health. Make it work for you: get up between episodes, make sure you stay hydrated and eat healthy for your viewing pleasure snacking. Get cooking: Some days cooking might sound like a lot of effort and the better way for you to practice your self-care is by ordering in or taking out from your favorite restaurant. Other days, cooking could be an even better self-care practice. Cooking for yourself is empowering and a great lesson in humility. Physically connecting to your food is a spiritual experience as well. Find a recipe you’ve been wanting to try and set aside time to make the preparations. Take plenty of pictures and enjoy the process. Take a social media detox: Spending hours at a time scrolling through your favorite social media news feeds is not exactly self-care, though it seems like it would be. Brain imaging studies have found that spending large amounts of time on social media causes more depression, anxiety, body image issues, and feelings of loneliness- not what you need during your self-care. Additionally, numbing your mind isn’t self-care either. Other studies have found that engaging in social media can produce the same effects in the brain as cocaine and other stimulant substances. Turning to mind altering substances or practices is not an answer for self-care. Hang out with a faraway friend: Technology may not be the greatest in many regards. One thing technology has given us is the ability to video chat. More effortlessly than ever before, you can hop on the screen with a friend. Online platforms even let you be on video chat and watch a movie at the same time, while sending each other messages. Luxuriate: Self-care for many equates to some personal luxuriation. Taking a hot bubble bath, an extra long shower, hitting the steam or sauna, going for a facial, doing your own facial, getting a massage, or any kind of luxury treatment is an indulgement. Letting someone else nurture your physical being is good for the soul. Take care of business: However, self-care doesn’t always have to be about stopping, putting everything down, and focusing on what you want to do to make you feel good. Many other necessary activities make you feel good and contribute to your self-care. Paying bills, getting organized, sorting through email, doing laundry, putting away laundry, all of this is considered self-care.