If you’ve ever been to one of my groupinars, you probably know how passionate I am about how we define self care. I’m constantly promoting the importance of developing a mindset that defines self care as just simply “taking care of yourself.” It’s not a noun, its not a verb, self care is a concept. And I’ll argue that it’s also a mindset. Here are some ways that you can help yourself find and maintain a self care mindset.

Bring awareness to your thoughts

We always have some type of mindset. Whether we are actively and intentionally curating a healthy mindset or just going with the flow of whatever narrates our life, something is always guiding us. Whenever we feel a lack of self care or self esteem, it often indicates that our mindset is not tuned into taking good care ourselves. This happens to the best of us. It even happens to me and I’m a therapist who specializes in all aspects of self care! The trick is to constantly assess our thoughts so that we can catch ourselves when we get into one of these funks. We need to know what we are thinking so we can work to change it if needed.

Develop a self care mindset by being present in the moment

Taking care of yourself is an act in the present. We can’t really go back and take care ourselves in the past. And we can proactively work to take care of ourselves in the future, but even that action is still in the present. Self care is we do right now to take care of ourselves right now. Therefore we need to be in the present to know what we need in the present. When you catch yourself thinking about all of the shoulds of life, its a sign that the only thing you should do is come back to the present moment. When you are actually in the moment its so much easier to find the self care in the moment.

Putting It All Together

It all comes down to a few simple steps. Developing a self care mindset requires recognizing your current mindset and trying to bring everything back to the present moment. When you are focusing on now you are in a much better position to know what you needs. You will also be more inclined to take good care of yourself.