Self care, especially during a pandemic, is important for your mental and physical health. Having some good techniques may help you find more motivation to get out of bed and take care of yourself.
I interviewed a couple of high school and college students to ask them about some self care techniques that they use. Each student said the hardest thing overall was finding the motivation to get up and do it.
For Ashley Weckerly, a junior at Kutztown University, self care has been hard. The hygiene aspect was lacking for a while due to not going anywhere.
“I get up and get dressed, listen to music, and do anything else to at least get out of bed in the morning,” said Weckerly. She also said that her hobby of photography has helped a lot mentally.
Mental health is a big factor in self care. If you are not feeling okay emotionally, it can also affect you physically.
Little things like taking a walk or doing something that you really enjoy are some ways to help with your mental self care.
“Working out makes me feel good and forces me to take a shower afterwards,” said Bucks students Riley Murray and Connor Bailey.
Maya Long, another Bucks student, finds it slightly harder to carve out time for self care. This is because she works full time and is also a student full time. She is also in a long-term relationship. Long said that she finds peace in perfecting her craft, which is her major, cinematography.
“Finding new movies to watch, or re-watching good movies makes me happy and feel good,” Long said.
Focusing on what you love to do is ideal self care. Everyone has something different that works for them. People’s hygiene routines, sleeping schedules, and daily activities are all different. You have to find what works for you.
Jimmy Leamon, a junior at The Pathway School, said that playing basketball and playing video games with his friends is helping with his self care.
“Basketball helps with the hygiene part of self care too because showering must happen after getting all sweaty,” said Leamon.
Everyone had the same thought that self care should be taken more seriously. These students all said something along the lines of “I find what works for me and what makes me feel happy and good.”
Taking a mental health day could be the start to your self care journey. If you truly don’t have time for an entire day of relaxation, then do an hour a day. I try to do an hour a day for myself and it has been working so far.
Knowing that everyone has different ideas of self care, find what works best for you.
Some of the things I do are writing, watching tv, trying to take a nap, organize, play a game or two on my phone, take walks, do some stretching, do other exercises, and I try to find new hobbies all the time. Right now I am really into astrology, so I bought myself a book about it and I read it every chance I get.
My hygiene has gotten better from the pandemic. I have started doing face masks and moisturizing my skin outside of the shower. Those little things can help in a big way by making you feel just the slightest bit better.
Getting the motivation for self care might be hard at times but it will always be worth it in the end.