Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably aware that wellness is a hot topic these days. Self-care has emerged as a highly sought-after practice, becoming the beloved buzzword that everyone — from Hollywood darlings to members of the Royal Family — is talking about.
Self-care, the practice of prioritising and caring for one’s emotional and physical health, is often associated with ‘indulgent’ pastimes — bubble baths, long naps, and other hygge-like pursuits. However, the concept can span a wide range of activities, many of which are superb for personal productivity.
While it’s customary to link productivity with “getting stuff done” and ticking tasks off a list, these conventional wisdoms can be confining at times. The notion suggests that productivity is just about generating a concrete outcome — frequently in the shortest amount of time feasible. Instead, a broader and healthier concept of productivity can be defined as acting “in alignment with your goals, priorities, and values.”
Here are three forms of self-care that will do wonders for your health and personal productivity.
1. Practise meditative exercises
If you value improved mental wellness, practising low-impact, meditative exercises can help. Deep breathing, also known as diaphragmatic breathing, has been proven to relax the body and mind by calming the nervous systems. It is an integral component of many favoured self-care exercises, ranging from the ever-popular yoga, to the burgeoning mindfulness movement.
Meditative, low-impact exercises require little to no equipment and can be performed in a gym or at home, whether streamed on demand or as a live workout. However, if you’re up for a challenge, you could try a ballet-inspired workout that combines ballet, pilates, and elements of cardio interval training. Dance workouts are renowned for their mood-boosting benefits and ability to build long, lean muscles. Plus, with no time for rumination, they are perfect for a mental health boost.
2. Put social media on pause
With ceaseless exposure to carefully curated content and fiendish filters, excessive social media use can fuel anxiety, depression, and other health issues, extending so far as affecting sleep. And, although often perceived as inspiring, social media can charge the phenomenon known as toxic positivity — causing you to downplay your own accomplishments through comparison culture, and build a distorted sense of wellbeing.
Just about anyone can benefit from a social media detox (even if they consider themselves to be in a healthy relationship with their devices) — which simply involves logging out of, suspending, or deleting social media applications for a designated period of time. It’s up to you when and how to start reaping the time-boosting benefits, although some people find that a 48-hour detox is a good starting point.
3. Send yourself on a solo date
Feeling brave? Solo dating is the ultimate expression of self-love. Due to the distractions of daily life, we spend a substantial amount of time concentrating on connections with other people while forgetting to care for ourselves. As an antidote, solo dating is gaining popularity, can nurture a search for self-discovery, and can be delightfully addictive.
You might be nervous about ‘dating’ yourself or spending extended periods of time alone, but you don’t have to be! Solo dating is an excellent opportunity to develop independence, confidence, and, most importantly, treat yourself with the same care and diligence that you do for loved ones. The options are endless: from a solo cinema night to a mindful afternoon at your favourite museum, take time to rediscover yourself and relish the rewards for personal growth.
