How Targeted Self-Care Practices Lead Humanitarians to Optimal Health and Flourishing
Historically, self-care has been marketed as an indulgence — images of lounging in a tub filled with bubbles or sitting on a sofa, feet up, reading a magazine while sipping tea. And while these are legitimate forms of self-care, marketing self-care as a luxury has inadvertently linked it with feelings of guilt for many humanitarians who regularly witness suffering all around them.
In addition to guilt, there’s a common misconception that self-care takes up a lot of time we either don’t have or that could be used for something more productive. Choosing to take care of ourselves when the people around us are struggling or “pushing through” can feel selfish and maybe even lazy. On the contrary, self-care is an active choice and an absolute necessity in high-stress, high-stakes lines of work where survival mode has become our default way of living.
Targeted self-care practices help us reset and activate our parasympathetic nervous system, allowing us to tap into six “buckets” of well-being that contribute to human flourishing. Optimal well-being requires self-care practices that specifically address and refill each of the six buckets. Rarely are all of these buckets completely full at the same time, but identifying which ones need to be topped up can help us design a more targeted approach to self-care that feels more manageable and leaves us thriving and energized. The six areas are as follows:
- Mental: the ability to regularly experience or engage in mental or intellectual stimulation
- Physical: the ability to enhance the healthy functioning of your body through nutrition, rest, and movement
- Emotional: the ability to connect, express, process, and reflect on a full range of emotions
- Practical: the ability to fulfill core aspects of your daily life
- Social: the ability to connect, nurture, and deepen the relationships in your life
- Spiritual: the ability to feel connected to something bigger than yourself and tap into your own inner wisdom
Each person is different, so the combination of choices and practices that best support you will vary. Because of this, it’s important to try different practices to identify the ones that make you feel good and regenerate your mind, body, and spirit.
