Self care is an extremely important part of living a healthy and happy life. If you neglect yourself and your needs, how can you live up to your full potential? When your needs aren’t met, you tend to become tired, stressed, angry or even depressed. Here are 5 signs that you need to start spending more time taking care of yourself.
1. You feel gross
When you don’t spend enough time taking care of yourself, your looks can suffer a bit. Some people are naturally attractive and don’t have to put in as much effort as others, but everyone should spend some time taking care of themselves. You don’t need to be vain about it, but a few minutes of self care can make you feel good. Put on a 10 minute face mask or just spend a few extra minutes in the shower.
Weight gain or loss can effect how you feel as well. If you’ve had a change in weight, your clothes will no longer fit properly and you may not be happy with the current state of your body. Maybe you’ve lost all your curves or you’ve gained them in places you don’t want them. Eating right will make you feel healthy. Exercise will give you endorphins that will make you feel more positive about yourself.
Spending time taking care of yourself will help improve your health as well as your confidence. If you feel gross when you go out, think about how much better you’d feel if you looked in the mirror and liked what you saw.
2. You don’t feel like you connect with anyone
As we grow older, we naturally lose touch with old friends and even some family members. We change and grow and so do others. People move away or pass away and sometimes we are left feeling like we don’t have anyone who understands us or even cares for us.
This is especially true when we don’t focus on self care because we rarely leave time for the friends we do have. When’s the last time you reached out to an old friend and just had a good conversation? When’s the last time you went out for a coffee with a new friend? Old friends are important because they know you and you have shared memories with them. New friends are important because you’ve grown and so have your interest so it’s important to find people who share in those things.
Strong social relationships are a part of being healthy so it’s important to reach out and stay connected with friends and family. Sometimes we feel so lonely and like no one understands us, but then we when actually tell someone how we feel, we end up realizing that they might feel the same way. And even if they don’t understand a true friend will try to help you or at least listen.
3. You’ve had a freak out, anxiety or panic attack recently
Typically if you freak out about something you feel you probably shouldn’t have, it might mean that you need to spend more time taking care of yourself. Anxiety can drive you crazy and make you think a bunch of thoughts that aren’t really true or worry about issues that aren’t really there. Then you end up freaking out when something bad happens, even if the issue isn’t really that bad.
When bad things happen, most healthy people are able to react to the situation in a healthy way and then later on if the shock and emotions will set in. But sometimes that doesn’t happen. Sometimes it’s just too much to handle and you freak out and can’t deal with it. Every situation is different and when emotions or other people are involved it’s hard to predict what will happen so sometimes it’s completely normal to freak out, but other times its not.
If you find yourself freaking out about something that you feel you really shouldn’t be, it might be a warning sign that you need to take some time for yourself. Especially if you find yourself freaking out multiple times about little things that really aren’t that important.
Everyone needs time for themselves. Try a new activity, read a book or just enjoy spending some quiet time with yourself.
4. You can’t stop crying
If your find yourself constantly crying when you get overwhelmed, angry or things don’t go your way, then maybe you need to take some time to figure out why you are getting so upset? Some people are just sensitive and cry easily, especially when their emotions run high. Sometimes you can get so angry or sad that you cry, and that is normal. But if you find yourself crying in situations that aren’t really worthy of your tears, then maybe you need to spend more time on self care.
First, let yourself cry, get it out. Then you should write down all the things that you are upset about. This will help you get to the core of your emotions. Maybe the reason you keep crying is you’re actually overwhelmed with all the things you have to do. Or maybe you’re just sad because you miss someone. Or maybe you’re angry at God because of how unfair your life has been?
After you figure out the core reason behind your tears you’ll be better equipped to handle the emotions and have a little more control over your crying. Part of self care is learning more about yourself which includes learning more about our emotions.
5. Your work is suffering
If you’ve noticed that lately you just don’t have the energy for your job, especially if you really used to like it, this can be a sign that you need to take better care of yourself.
One of the major areas of life that tend to suffer when you aren’t taking good care of yourself is work life. In order to do your best in any aspect of life you need to feel your best and this is especially true of work.
If you are preoccupied or if you just aren’t feeling your best, it’s going to be hard to focus and really give your job you’re all.
Compare it to when you wake up well rested, have a good breakfast and leave the house in a well put together outfit, feeling confident. You’re more likely going to have a better day than the person who woke up late, skipped breakfast, just put on anything that was clean and is distracted because they feel sick and have a lot going on at home. Who’s going to perform better at work?
If you notice your work is suffering or you just don’t want to be there anymore, first make sure you are taking care of yourself as much as you need. There is a good chance that once you start taking better care of yourself that your work performance or at least your attitude towards work, will improve.
Remember self care includes taking a mental health day once in a while if you need it. That is just as important as taking a sick day when you have a cold.