Work-Life Balance: Self-Care Practices for Every Professional

In today’s world, it can be easy for us to prioritize the pursuit of money above ourselves. Mental breakdown and fatigue are all too common amongst our coworkers. These are unfortunate byproducts of our work-focused lifestyles, but we don’t have to ignore the signs, and we can actively work against them.

Often, these cases happen to people who give so much of themselves to others and don’t find time for personal check-ins. It's impractical to take care of others if you are unwell, thus the importance of self-care. Here, we’ll discuss how you can implement some self-care tips to keep you in check:

1. Start with Your Hygiene

Yes, this may sound laughable to most people. However, the truth is, it all starts from your home. Get used to doing the basics:

• Bathe daily

• Brush your teeth

• Maintain bathroom hygiene by washing your hands frequently

• Smell good. Apply deodorant or fragrance

If you start with the basics, you can avoid sickness and cohabitate well with your colleagues and customers at work.

2. Intentionally Take Care of Your Beauty

After taking care of your hygiene, your beauty comes second. Once your beauty needs are taken care of, your self-esteem also grows, and it relaxes your mind. Set an appointment with a medical spa and get to experience new ways of taking care of your beauty.

If you have certain beauty insecurities that need to be addressed, you can get advice from these beauty experts and eventually know your options. If you fear surgery, don’t worry, there are many non-invasive treatments you can try out without taking up a lot of your time.

3. Celebrate The Small Wins

It’s easy to get frustrated when we wait for our employers to praise us after doing some major milestones in our workplaces. It’s not always their fault; at times, they could be either too busy dealing with their issues or simply forgetting about them. Don’t beat yourself up about this.

Setup a personal weekly or monthly evaluation to see how far you’ve come and the major milestones you’ve achieved and celebrate them no matter how small they look.

4. Follow a Physical Activity Routine

Most people don’t know that their physical well-being plays a huge role in their mental wellness. It is recommended to take up an exercise routine that releases your endorphins. These endorphins will not only help keep your state of mind in a stable place, and you achieve a lot of other benefits. If you can, aim to do a physical routine of about 30 minutes every day. That way, you will keep yourself refreshed, and in return, you’ll be more productive.

5. Take Care of Your Emotional Well-being

COVID-19 isolation resulted in rising rates of depression. Many don’t seek the support they need and end up dealing with it on their own. Unfortunately, depression can lower your work productivity, and even the simplest tasks can seem hard to do.

However, there are ways to avoid all this by:

• Join a social group

• Listen to music

• Take up meditation sessions

• Take up some art or coloring work

• Speak respectfully to your employer at work about it

• Talk to a colleague, friend, or someone you confide in if you’re going through a challenging situation

6. Take Care of Your Spiritual Wellness

Regardless of your religious beliefs, there are benefits to pursuing some spiritual wellness.

It enables you to think of situations differently and helps you reflect in a calm atmosphere. The most common forms of spiritual practices include practicing yoga, attending a church service, or praying.

7. Get Ample Sleep

While it may seem obvious, sleep is incredibly important for our cognitive performance and mental health. If you can get the recommended seven to nine hours of nightly sleep, you’ll likely be refreshed. . Without ample rest, your work may lessen in quality.

8. Travel To New Places

However, a work-life balance must be upheld at all costs, no matter the workload. Often, it’s easy to postpone your vacation, considering your workload. However, there will always be something that needs to be done.

You can have a sit-down with your employer to figure out the times when there’s less workload or when the most crucial work has been completed and set your vacation time. During your vacation, you will have time to reflect, refresh and you’ll go back to work feeling more energized.

9. Intentionally Plan Your Day

Planning your day and sticking to the set work activities for the day can’t be very easy to do. However, planning your day helps you achieve your goals efficiently, maintain proper time management, and you can add personal time to your schedule. Your “me time” breaks will help you unwind and focus on yourself for a few minutes. Use a work planner to help you plan your day and better manage your time.

10. Recharge Away from Technology

With the frequent use of technology in almost all work setups, it’s easy to experience burnout after a while. You can intentionally take breaks from all these technologies at work for a few minutes to relax your mind.

However, if it's impossible to stay off the technology, ensure that you take a break from it once you leave work or on the weekends. Keep all those gadgets away and do other activities that don’t require you to use the internet to clear your mind, e.g., watch a movie, go swimming, read a book, etc.

11. Set Healthy Boundaries

We live in times where we have a lot of things happening around us. Yes, we mentioned the importance of having social connections. However, it’s also crucial to limit how far you take those relationships. Be friendly at work and in your social setups but set your limits on how far you can go.

Unhealthy relationships only end up being stressful to you, and they give you unnecessary stress, which you could have easily avoided. Strike a balance in how you relate with people and how far you can go with them.

As we mentioned earlier, work-life balance is vital to any worker out there. It not only models you to the person you are but also enhances your productivity. Apart from keeping your work ethic in check, take time to take care of yourself. It is never a waste of time and money.

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Jenn Walker is a freelance writer, blogger, dog-enthusiast, and avid beachgoer operating out of Southern New Jersey. She writes on behalf of several continuing care retirement communities in New Jersey.