Does self-care influence the quality of life?

We often hear that self-care plays an important role in avoiding stress and burnout. However, that is not the worst what can happen due to lack of proper self-care.

According to the survey of World Health Organization (2010), lifestyle diseases such as heart attack and stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes causes 63% of all annual deaths worldwide. That means in numbers around 36 million deaths every year out of the global total of 57 million.

‘Self-Care is what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health, and to prevent and deal with illness. It is a broad concept encompassing hygiene (general and personal), nutrition (type and quality of food eaten), lifestyle (sporting activities, leisure etc), environmental factors (living conditions, social habits, etc.) socioeconomic factors (income level, cultural beliefs, etc.) and self-medication.’ / Definition of Self-Care (WHS 1998)1

Have you ever wondered how much do you care about yourself? Raise your awareness via the following short Self-care checklist!

How self-care strategies help survival?

While self-care represents preventive activities, resilience is the ability which let us survive in an emergency situation. People often experience low-probability, extreme, unpredictable happenings in any area of life and are required to bear the unwanted consequences.

An emergency situation can occur due to a divorce, loss of our closest one, overwhelming stress at work or a sudden immense, unwanted change in health, financial situation.

Considering only physical health in the abovementioned cases would ignore essential functions of the human being. Cognitive behavior therapy emphasizes that thoughts, feelings, and behavior are strongly connected, thus mental, emotional and social health play a significant role in overcoming difficulties too.

Boost your resilience today! Try out four short exercises affecting all the four resilience areas!

Mental: Stop complaining for a day!

Emotional: List the things you are grateful for today!

Social: Compliment your colleague for something you do acknowledge!

Physical: Do a short stretching 5 times during the day!

How to lead survival into better performance?

“The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even (or especially) when it’s not going well, is the hallmark of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to thrive during some of the most challenging times in their lives.” / Carol S. Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology Of Success

Great performance is a result of a conscious self-care and a can-do mindset. Difficult situations challenge our well-being at all level. Therefore, training your mental, physical, emotional and social resilience will prepare you to tackle those challenges with confidence.