Practising self-care for mental health is super important, but it can be hard to know where to start. Many self-care resources choose to stay relatively surface level when suggesting self-care activities. Don’t get me wrong, bubble baths and chocolate are great! But if this is all your self-care plan entails, it’s no wonder you struggle to truly recharge your battery.
In this post, we are going to take a fresher perspective on the art of self-care: values-based self-care! Read on to find out what this actually means and how you can implement it in your own life.
But first, what is self-care?
Self-care is essentially doing anything that you need to do to keep yourself healthy. And when I say healthy, I don’t just mean physically healthy. I’m also talking about your mental, emotional and spiritual health. Basically, your overall wellbeing.
This is going to look very different from person to person. What fills your cup or charges your metaphorical battery is most likely very different from what I need to take care of myself. The key is to become aware of the things that you personally need to do to protect your wellbeing on a regular basis!
What are values?
Values are the things that matter to us most and that direct and guide us through life. They are the morals that we live by and that typically drive our decision-making process. Many things can determine our personal values: our upbringing, culture, personality, experiences, etc. And while it is common to have core values that stay pretty consistent throughout our lives, it is also typical for some of our values to shift, evolve or change over time.
Why values-based self-care?
“True self-care is not bath salts and chocolate cake, it’s making the choice to build a life you don’t need to escape from.”
-Brianna Wiest
Values are the key to more meaningful self-care for mental health. When we practice self-care that aligns with our personal values, this ensures that these practices are more beneficial and fulfilling. Living a life that aligns with our values also tends to ensure we are happier and more satisfied on a daily basis.
The first step towards values-based self-care is knowing what your values are. If you are coming up blank, don’t worry! The next section will walk you through a few ways to identify your top personal values.
Finding your values.
To be able to practice values-based self-care, we first need to have a clear idea of what our values are. Here are a few simple exercises you can try to help you identify some of your top values:
Personal Reflection
Try answering some of these questions to help you identify your values, either in your head or through journaling:
- What’s most important to you in life?
- What makes you the happiest?
- What are you most proud of in your life?
- What would you spend your day doing if money and responsibilities did not factor in?
Values List
Take a look at a list of different value words and see which ones resonate with you. Check out this handy dandy list by Brené Brown as a good place to start.
Value Sorting Exercise
If you have a bit more time on your hands, you might be interested in completing a value sorting quiz. These exercises basically have you sort through a long list of values to help you figure out which ones are most important to you and which ones are not. A fairly quick one that I like is by The Good Project and can be found here. If you’re a little more visual, this one by Think 2 Perform is great.
If you’d rather do a value sorting exercise by hand, I’ve got you covered! Just follow the steps below:
- Using a values list (such as the one linked above), highlight or write down all the value words that resonate with you. Don’t overthink it at this step – if your gut tells you to write a word down, do it.
- Once you have your (probably large) list, sort these words into 3-5 categories that make sense to you.
- Come up with a word that captures each of these categories (or pick the word from each category that resonates most) – these are your top values!
Putting it all together.
Now that you have a clearer idea of your top values, we want to regularly foster that value through self-care for better mental health. For example, if you really value learning and personal growth, maybe you sign up for a course to learn something new. If you value altruism, maybe you find a way to volunteer or give back on a regular basis. If you value connection, family or friends, you might make sure to schedule in regular phone calls or coffee dates with your loved ones. You get the picture!
Values-Based Self-Care Reflection Questions
Here are some self-reflection questions to help you identify values-based self-care for mental health:
- Am I currently living in alignment with my top values?
- Which values do I foster with my current self-care practices?
- Which of my values am I not currently attending to with self-care?
- How have I practised values-based self-care in the past?
- Brainstorm several ways you can practice self-care for each of your top values.
Practising Values-Based Self-Care for Mental Health
Now here comes the hardest part – you have to choose ONE values-based self-care practice and actually commit to doing it. That wasn’t a typo, I definitely did say only one. We are building sustainable practices here, and so we don’t want to get overwhelmed right out of the gate.
I get it, we’re all super busy people, and if you’re reading this post, there’s a good chance self-care has not been your top priority. So, let’s start small by picking one thing and seeing how that goes. Actually put it in your calendar, make it happen, and tweak it as necessary. Once you get the hang of it and are reaping the benefits of values-based self-care, then you can add in more things!
Conclusion
There you have it, a different approach to self-care that I hope will be instrumental in helping you to re-energize. I’m off to take a bubble bath and eat some chocolate (see what I did there 😉), but drop a comment below! I would love to hear about some of your personal values and how you plan to incorporate these into your self-care.
PS – looking for more ways to practice self-care for mental health? Check out these posts:
