Discover the importance of physical self-care and get 15 physical self-care ideas that you can implement easily into your daily routine.
If you’ve ever cleaned a kitchen before, you’ll know that doing the dishes is an important part of the cleaning routine.
You will rarely see someone clean off counters and floors without doing the dishes first.
That’s because if there is a pile of dirty dishes waiting on the counter, it’s not going to make a difference how clean the counter itself is, you’re still going to feel like there’s a mess.
Until the dishes are taken care of, there’s no point in cleaning the rest of the kitchen.
It’s the same with self-care.
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So many of us will put energy and thought into the aspects of self-care that are about quiet journaling and calm baths.
But if we miss the foundation of self-care, then our efforts will go to waste.
Physical self-care is that important foundation.
It involves activities that keep your body in good working condition on a more concrete level. And if we fail to address this type of self-care, the rest of our effort to incorporate self-care will be rendered useless.
If you’re exhausted and dehydrated, no amount of meditation or spa treatments are going to help you.
Though it may not be the most exciting type of self-care, physical self-care is absolutely crucial for your self-care routine.
It’s not a luxury; it’s a priority.
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What is physical self-care?
Simply put, physical self-care is health management. It consists of any activities that aid your physical health.
Some basic aspects of physical self-care involve drinking enough water, eating healthy foods, and getting enough sleep and physical movement.
Physical self-care is not so much about random things you do every once in a while. It is something you need to add to your daily routine to manage your health proactively.
Why is physical self-care important?
Physical self-care is the foundation upon which all of the other types of self-care are built. The importance of physical self-care is, therefore, extremely prevalent.
Your brain and your body are deeply connected, so if you want to take care of your mental health, you have to take care of your physical health first.
Take something as simple as drinking water as an example.
Water has a slew of benefits for your body. Failing to drink enough of it can cause a foggy brain, changes in mood, an inability to regulate temperature, constipation, and a myriad of other health problems in your daily life.
Failing to do this one thing every day affects both your physical and mental health.
And that’s just water!
Imagine what ignoring all of the other forms of physical self-care would do!
Making your health management a priority in your life will do more than give you a healthy body; it will give you a healthier mind in the process and will help to make all of your other efforts in self-care more effective and worthwhile.
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15 Activities to help you prioritize physical self-care
These 15 physical self-care ideas will help you create a sustainable daily routine that will properly manage your body’s physical health. Add these simple activities to your daily habits to improve your overall health.
1. Get enough sleep
Nobody knows why but it is understood by medical professionals that sleep is definitely important for our overall health.
The average adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep a night but honestly, figuring out the amount of sleep you need personally is going to require some experimenting on your part.
For myself, 8 hours is ideal. 7 hours doesn’t always feel like enough but 9 hours feels like too much.
One good way to figure out how much sleep you need that worked for me is to go without an alarm for a few days.
Observe how many hours you tend to sleep before your body naturally wakes up. It will likely be the amount of sleep you need regularly.
Once you know how much sleep you require to feel refreshed in the morning, honour that time as best as you can. Don’t let anything get in the way of ensuring that you have enough rest.
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2. Get regular health checkups
This activity will look different depending on your needs.
For people who are relatively young and healthy, doctors don’t recommend regular checkups. On the other hand, females and people who have an underlying health condition require more visits.
But besides the health checkups with your doctor, it’s important to keep tabs on your own body’s health from home.
Make sure that you are regularly acquainting yourself with your body and how you’re feeling.
If you can, do a body scan every so often to check for any abnormal bumps, lumps, or changes in skin colour. Monitor how your muscles and bones are feeling and pay attention to any smaller symptoms that may come up each day.
You don’t have to do anything advanced- just make sure you are familiar with your body so that you can spot any potential problems early.
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3. Pay attention to your whole body and consult a professional when needed
In the same way that it’s important to be aware of how your body is doing on a holistic level, it’s important to know when it’s time to get professional help.
If you start noticing that something is not feeling quite right, pay attention to it for the next few days. Sometimes, the body will solve the problem on its own and you can just go about your week as usual.
But if you see that the problem is stagnating or getting worse, you can’t just shrug your shoulders and forget about it. You need to decide on the next steps.
Sometimes all that is required is a little research and some small lifestyle changes. Other times it might require buying a product that can help. If these changes still aren’t enough, then you may need to consult a professional.
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4. Take recommended medications consistently
For most people, this step probably doesn’t involve a lot of prescription medication but there are some good supplements that you can take according to your body’s needs.
Personally, I noticed that Omega-3 pills help my brain to stay clear each day, improving my mood and my focus at work. For this reason, I take this pill every single day.
I also take a Vitamin D supplement in the winter because I know I will not have as much access to the sun as I do in the summertime.
You might find that there are certain vitamins and supplements that really help your body function at its best. When you find what those things are for you, take some time each day to prioritize them.
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5. Choose your food wisely
Making better food choices can be a real game-changer in your physical self-care routine. I’m not suggesting that you become a super health-nut and monitor your diet to the highest degree but it definitely helps to make adjustments when you can.
Making simple swaps is one easy way to have a healthier diet without feeling like you’re giving up too much.
As a general rule, I typically prioritize proteins and boiled vegetables and then treat bread and fruit as dessert.
That being said, I am not a doctor and I don’t personally believe that there is a one-size-fits-all strategy when it comes to eating habits. Notice how you feel after each meal you eat and make adjustments that make your body feel good.
Let me give you an example from my own life.
It’s commonly recommended that you eat a lot of vegetables each day. But I noticed that on days where I ate more raw veggies, I would get tummy aches.
I tried boiling my vegetables or roasting them with some oil and noticed that my digestion went much more smoothly that way.
Now I rarely eat vegetables raw and instead opt for veggies that are coated in healthy oils because my body feels better when I eat it that way.
It requires a lot of trial and error to find the right foods for you but you will definitely enjoy the way it makes you feel when you finally find a good fit!
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6. Eat Mindfully
This practical self-care activity doesn’t require any change in your diet. It is instead about the habits surrounding your eating.
For example, instead of distracting yourself with television while you eat, take time to focus on your food in a quiet atmosphere.
Eating mindfully just means being more intentional about recognizing what you’re eating and really being involved in the experience.
You might notice that you eat less when you try this activity or that you enjoy your food a little more.
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7. Drink lots of water
Water is so important for your body and yet so many of us don’t drink enough of it.
I was well into my twenties before I started prioritizing water and it made such a difference in my overall health.
This is another area where no one is fully certain of the amount of water you need but a safe number to start with is about 8 fluid ounces per day. If you’re sick, drink more than that.
You will probably notice that when you start to drink more water, your body will make some positive changes that will encourage you to keep up the habit.
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8. Consider what products you use on your body
One thing that’s nice about this practical self-care activity is that it really doesn’t take any extra time out of your day. It simply requires a few simple swaps in your routine.
A common rule of thumb when it comes to skincare is to only put things on your body that you would also be able to put in your body.
This basically means that you should aim to use fewer chemicals on your body and opt for more natural solutions.
I went through quite a long transition from chemical products to natural products myself. Over the course of about 10 years, I went from using loads of makeup and chemical-infused skincare products to simply using rosehip oil and kitchen items and forgoing makeup altogether.
The skincare journey is a unique one for each person and should be approached with healthy curiosity and patience for yourself.
Don’t expect to make a bunch of changes all at once. Start small and see where things go from there.
My biggest encouragement for this activity is simply that you make choices that make you feel good about your body and how it’s being treated. If you feel happy with your current choices, then, by all means, don’t change a thing!
However, if you feel like you are making skincare decisions based on low self-esteem or on current trends and you don’t feel fully comfortable with that, then it’s time for a change.
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9. Make small changes to your routine that incorporate a bit of movement into your day
Small changes to your routine can make a really big difference over time. They don’t take up much extra time in your day but they can greatly affect your overall health.
Small changes you can make to improve your health
- Park farther away from buildings so you have to walk a little more
- Take stairs instead of elevators
- Drink more water so you have to make more trips to the bathroom throughout the day
- Swap your desk chair for a yoga ball
- Put your office equipment further away so you have to get up to fetch it
- Eat your lunch outside every once in a while
These are all changes you can make that don’t take a lot of extra time but ensure that you are moving a little more often than you used to.
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10. Create a basic exercise routine
I’m not that into exercise in the traditional sense myself, so when I say exercise routine you can know that I’m not necessarily talking about creating some gruelling workout.
A basic exercise routine is one that ensures that you’re paying attention to the health of muscles that often don’t get used in a regular workweek.
Personally, I resort to dance or yoga to get some pleasant movement in my schedule but any physical activity will do. It could even be something as simple as doing yard work each day!
To ensure that you always feel your goals are manageable, I would recommend that you aim for 20 minutes of more intentional movement each day.
If you expect too much of yourself, you might be more prone to putting it off but 20 minutes is such a small amount of time that it feels more doable.
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11. Walk!
Walking more is a lot like drinking more water- there are countless benefits and the task is trivially easy, so it makes sense to prioritize it.
There are lots of different ways you can add walking to your daily routine. Each one has its own set of benefits but there’s no needed to get all technical about it. Just walk!
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12. Stretch every day
This practical self-care activity is especially important now that most of our jobs are sedentary.
Working at a desk can be relaxing but it comes with a collection of new health problems that require some extra attention.
Take notice of places in your body that feel tight and spend some time stretching them regularly.
This will help you feel better as a whole and will keep you from suffering more severe injuries in the long term.
If you don’t know where to start, I would recommend YouTube.
There are lots of chiropractors on there that have great movement activities to help with every area of the body.
13. Practice good posture
This is another thing that has seen a decline since we started working at desks more often. Good posture helps you breath better, have better digestion, reduce headaches and back pain, and so much more!
But it doesn’t come easily. Good posture requires practice and strong muscles that can support your body for long periods of time.
There are lots of tools out there that can help improve your posture but you can also try to go without those tools and simply be more conscious of your posture on a daily basis.
When you first try changing your posture, you will notice that it is not easy to maintain. It will take time and effort to get your body comfortable with the new positions.
But as you keep working at it, you will notice that it gets easier to do and makes a big difference in how your body feels each day.
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14. Practice breathing techniques to strengthen your lungs
Did you know that there are breathing exercises that can actually increase your lung capacity?
It’s important to keep healthy lungs so that your body can get the oxygen it needs to function properly.
This diaphragmatic breathing technique can help you improve the health of your lungs and can be done anywhere:
- Sit on a chair or lie down and relax your shoulders.
- Put one hand on your stomach and one on your chest.
- Breathe in through your nose for two seconds, filling your stomach and chest with air. Your stomach should move out more than your chest.
- Breathe out for two seconds through pursed lips while putting pressure on your abdomen.
- Repeat.
There are tons of other breathing exercises that offer many different benefits. Have fun finding breathing exercises that benefit you most!
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15. Get physical touch
This might sound a bit odd at first but this physical self-care activity is certainly an important one.
As humans, skin-to-skin contact is important for mental, emotional, and physical health.
Being deprived of touch can affect our overall health in profound ways.
How to get more physical touch daily:
- Hold hands
- Give someone a hug
- Cuddle with another person or animal
- Get a massage
- Let someone play with your hair
If you don’t have any opportunity for physical touch because there are no people or pets around, you can also get a little comfort from a nice weighted blanket. It will at least give you the pressure of a hug which can help mimic the feeling of human contact.
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Bonus Tip: take sick leave BEFORE you’re truly sick
This is a great physical self-care tip that actually made a huge difference in my overall health. Instead of waiting until you are too sick to stand to take a sick day at work, request sick days at the first site of sickness.
When you take a sick day before you really need it, you are able to be more proactive with the healing process.
You are taking charge of your health before it gets to be too overwhelming.
By taking your sick days earlier, you are able to recover faster than you would if you waited until the illness was more serious.
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Physical self-care might not be the most exciting type of self-care out there but it is definitely an important one to prioritize.
Without attention to your physical health, any other effort to care for yourself will prove to be fruitless.
Take time each day to care for your physical health and you will notice that your body and your mind will feel better as a whole.
Do you have any physical self-care ideas?
All these self care tips are so helpful. Thank you for reminding
I’m glad you enjoyed them! I’ve definitely found them useful for my own days off 🙂