Online Social Work Degree at Case Western Reserve University
Many of us lead a busy life with constant demands on our time and attention, so much so that there is barely enough time to sit down and take stock of how your life is going and how you feel about it.
This infographic takes a look at the role of social work and self-care, starting off with the observation that to take care of others, we need to take care of our needs first.
Self-care is all about taking the time to look after your physical and mental wellbeing, so that you are in the best possible shape and have a positive outlook about your life. If you can get this balance, it will give you the positivity and mental strength to feel that you can have reasonable control of your emotions and allow you the time and energy to help lift others around you.
The question you may well be asking is what is self-care?
There are various aspects and components that come together under the premise of practicing self-care.
This includes identifying the things in our life that make us stressed, and then working out a strategy that deals with an effective way of combating and managing that stress.
One theory put forward by Robert Emmons, PhD, implies that you can achieve a good level of self-care through gratitude. His studies discovered that people who were able to express gratitude by writing down in a weekly journal, all of the things that were grateful for, were generally more satisfied with their lives, had fewer health issues and enjoyed more restful sleep, amongst other things.
There are a number of ways in which you could practice self-care, including keeping a gratitude journal, which may well help you to focus on the positive rather than the negative things in your life.