Chronic stress greatly affects your mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing, and can lead to a variety of symptoms, including fatigue, headaches, difficulty sleeping, and nervousness. When experiencing chronic stress, it can be difficult to get back on course, especially when the reasons for your stress are out of your control. In those times, self-care becomes even more important. By using self-care strategies, you can take back some control and find the resources and tools you need to make positive changes in your life. Read about some ways to practice self-care in your daily life, and then download our checklist to hold yourself accountable!

Self-Care Tips for Mental Health

Chronic stress can wreak havoc on your mental health. Over time, your stress response may contribute to low energy levels, depression, or anxiety. With so many people, tasks, and concerns dominating your mental space, it’s no wonder you’re starting to feel burnt out. Giving your brain some purposeful time to sit, relax, and recharge can do wonders for your mental health. Try some of these mental health self-care tips:

• Unplugging from your phone or computer for at least 20 minutes
• Change your routine to add some novelty to your day
• Take up meditation
• Clean your living/working space

Emotional Self-Care Tips

Stress can also affect your emotional state and lead you to feel restless, unmotivated, overwhelmed, irritable, or angry. If you’re feeling like you’re at your wit’s end, it’s time to give yourself some emotional self-care. Try these activities to help you rediscover yourself and process your emotions in a healthy way:

• Spending some time with your emotions to fully understand what you’re feeling and why
• Spend some time in nature
• Journal about your feelings
• Do something you love (even just for a few minutes)

Physical Self-Care Activities

Stress can physically manifest in multiple ways, including headaches, achy and tense muscles, chest pain, insomnia, increased heart rate, and grinding teeth. That’s why your body needs some extra TLC during these times – caring for your basic physical needs can have a huge impact on your stress levels! Practice physical self-care by:

• Making sure you’re getting enough sleep (about 7-8 hours)
• Moving your body for at least 30 minutes
• Cooking yourself a healthy meal
• Stretching daily

Practicing self-care isn’t a one-and-done activity. To experience the benefits of self-care, try to do at least one thing each day to care for your physical, mental, and emotional health. To make it easier for you to plan your self-care routine (and stick to it), download our free Self-Care Checklist. Pick at least one idea from each category daily, and see how different you feel!

Download the Checklist