Self-care is “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider”. (WHO, 2020)

Self-care is anything we do with our own well-being in mind.  Essentially you are giving yourself time, grace, and compassion by feeding into your spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical needs thus enabling you to refuel and recharge.  Recognizing the relationship we have with ourselves and prioritizing it as well as recognizing and calling out the things that aren’t healthy for us are all a part of self-care.

What constitutes self-care is unique for everyone and doesn’t only include pampering ourselves but it may include recognizing that you need help and accepting that fact and seeking the help you need.  It may also include setting boundaries, meditation, and exercise. Most importantly it focuses on what feels right for you; this includes listening to what your mind and body tell you that you need.

Reflection Exercise

How to complete this activity and save your work: type your reflective responses to the questions in the boxes below. When you’re done reflecting on the questions, navigate to the export page to download and save your response. If you prefer to work in a Word document offline, you can skip to the export section and download a Word document of the reflection here.