Emergency Self-Care Tool Kit: Why You Need One And How To Create It.

The whole world is talking about the importance of self-care. You only need to scroll through social media to see #selfcaresunday and countless posts sharing ideas of how to implement some self-care into your day. But what is self care? And why would you need an emergency self-care tool kit?

Self-care is defined as “the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health”. We all have different ways of doing this, for some it’s the act of drinking a morning coffee in silence or talking a walk whilst listening to a podcast.

I like to break it down into the two tiers of self-care:

Tier One covers the basic acts we incorporate into our every day lives. For me, this include exercise, getting the right amount of sleep, eating nutritious food and speaking with my own coach or therapist every few weeks. This is the basic self care that allows me to function at my best, without these basic acts my mood, health and performance begins to suffer, fast!

Tier Two

Consider tier two to be the sprinkles on top of the already well-formed cupcake. Without these acts of self-care you might not see an immediate hit to your health or mood, however, sprinkling them into your week or month can help elevate your mood, increase your confidence and help prevent burnout. For me, this would include things like putting on a face mask or going for a massage, attending a workshop where I can learn something new and creative, catching up with a friend for a coffee. I’m not going to burn out or fall apart if I don’t do any of these but I’m definitely going to feel and perform better if I do.

So what is the emergency self-care tool kit?

Looking after ourselves is easy when we already feel good. When I’m at my best I’m exercising consistently, eating healthily, catching up with friends and setting time aside for things like hair treatments and face masks. My nails are on point and I naturally gravitate towards doing things that are good for me. But what about the times where you’re really struggling?

Whether it’s a job loss, break up, or losing a loved one, we’ve all had those days or weeks where we just don’t feel like getting out of bed! When we’re going through hard times the last thing we feel like doing is making time for self-care. The thing is, this is absolutely when we need it most!

Your emergency self-care tool kit serves as a reminder of what you need to do to feel physically and mentally healthy even when it’s the last thing you feel like doing. I recommend creating your list of self-care acts, breaking them down into tier one (the non-negotiables) and tier two (the nice-to-haves).

When you’re going through a difficult time it will be much easier to choose one or two items from your list rather than find something you actually feel like doing. Keep this list somewhere handy or even share it with a friend for extra accountability. Even though you might not feel motivated to implement these acts of self-care, picking some tools from your emergency self-care kit will help you recover faster and more healthily.