Self-Care: an Exercise for Behavioral Health Professionals

In our profession, it can feel easy and even necessary sometimes to push our own needs to the side. However, making time for ourselves is essential to our overall well-being. Self-care is also preventive care, and things like routinely exercising, checking in on your mental state, and eating well can make a big impact on your well-being. It’s also true that taking responsibility for your own well-being gives you the power to begin problem solving and finding your joy.

Self-care is an on-going process! It may happen that you’re taking great care of yourself for a while, and then life gets busier and you begin pushing your own care to the side to make space for other priorities. However, there’s nothing more important than checking in with yourself from time to time — knowing that you need to be your best self in order to continue the important work you’re doing for others.

With this in mind, Mental Health America’s Mental Health toolkit suggests you try asking yourself: What are some things that would make you feel better, but you cannot seem to do?

• Start by writing out some things you’d like to do for yourself that you haven’t prioritized recently. Then narrow down any thoughts and expectations that are preventing you from doing the self-care that you need. No need to worry about whether these thoughts or expectations are true — just write down anything that comes to mind. (Examples of thoughts might be: “I don’t have time” or “My needs don’t matter,” and examples of expectations might be: “I should be better at _____.”
• Next, choose one thought or expectation to focus on, while exploring:
  • Where does this thought or expectation come from? Who sets it?
  • How does it get in the way of taking care of yourself?
• Finally, support your self-care needs by rewriting the thought or expectation that is getting in your way. Try “If I do _____ I may feel better,” or “It’s okay to take time for myself to do _____.”

This process helps evaluate how our negative thoughts and expectations prevent us from taking care of ourselves regularly. And it is a great way to check in with yourself, which is extremely important in preventing burnout and giving yourself the care you deserve, consistently.

Maintaining an active role in your own health allows you to assess your situation and plan accordingly. If you’re feeling down, give yourself the care you need, like getting outside, performing a self care ritual or confiding in a loved one. Finding new and meaningful ways to improve your mental health and help support others in doing the same can truly give you a boost of happiness.