Bula Fiji! Thank you for taking time out to read Bula Vakasaama, a column dedicated dicated to enlightening readers about practical strategies for optimal mental health and mind wellness.
Today, I’d like to invite you to appreciate the importance of self-care. Society has conditioned us to put others’ needs before our own, however, it is absolutely vital that we look after ourselves so that we can better serve those in our family and community.
Yet we ignore self-care and run on an empty tank until we are exhausted, and sometimes even resentful of how much of ourselves we allow towards serving everyone else.
Difference between essential self and physical self
We often take our ‘Physical Self’, meaning only our physical body as the primary self. When it comes to selfcare, we need to nourish the ‘Essential Self’ — our essence — which refers to the quality of our intentions, ions, and the quality of our thoughts, words, and deeds towards our own wellbeing.
Self-Care enables one to live life with mindful actions, joy, compassion, and gratitude for the abundance and mercy that God has bestowed upon us.
We have been taught to speak well of others and to treat others with respect and kindness, yet we look at ourselves in the mirror and find fault in our body shape, or skin colour, or hair, or facial features.
We use unkind and harsh words to describe ourselves and our abilities – “I’m a failure”, “I’m ugly”, “I’m stupid”, “No one loves me”, “I’m always ruining ng everything for everyone”, and so on.
We treat ourselves with disrespect by feeding our bodies with junk foods and toxic beverages.
We disrespect our minds by watching content online that do not serve our higher purpose in life and turn us into mindless, unenquiring followers owers of tional ideologies rather than empower us to become intelligent t people who critically analyse and make compas- irrasionate choices with awareness of self and others.
The Essential Self, your essence, is where your true and authentic self resides.
It is where you find God’s guidance through intuition. When the Essential Self is ignored for too long, the Physical Self (body) begins to manifest negative symptoms such as anger, confusion, anxiety, fear, accumulation of abdominal fat, lack of sleep, fatigue, worry, increased blood pressure, and shallow breathing, to name a few.
Strategies to care for your essential self
Here are twelve tried and tested selfcare strategies that may help you take care of your Essential Self – your mind, body, and spirit. Remember, self-care is not selfish.
In fact, self-care means to care for yourself the exact same way that you would care for your loved ones;
• Nourish your body with foods and beverages that are directly from nature – unpackaged and unprocessed;
• Upon waking and before bed, do the mindful breathing exercise – breathe deeply and slowly through your nose, hold for four seconds, then breathe out slowly through your mouth. Repeat five times;
• Spend time outside in nature. Touch the grass. Hug the trees. Smell the flowers. Bask in the warmth of the sun on your face. Feel the raindrops on your face. At night, spend a few minutes looking up into the night sky and become aware of your connection with the entire ever-expanding universe. Know that you are part of this beautiful creation;
• Have a morning and evening skincare routine. You don’t need expensive products. Fruit peels, coconut oil, dried tea leaves, dried ground coffee, honey — all make great skin exfoliants;
• Be of service to someone purely for the sake of kindness and goodness. Join a volunteering organisation. Send a happy quote to someone;
• Have a diary or journal to write about your goals, your feelings, and to find clarity in your thoughts. Make it a daily routine to check in with yourself about your thoughts and feelings;
• Drink lots of water to detox your body. Water stores memories. Adult human bodies are 60 per cent water. The brain and heart are 73 per cent water;
• Switch off your device at least one hour before bed. Read a book or a magazine instead, until you feel tired;
• Create something with your hands. Learn a new craft or practise more of the craft you already know;
• Speak kindly to yourself about yourself. Always. You are a beautiful creation of God. Do not put yourself down;
• Manage your emotions by finding healthy and peaceful ways to express them. Anger is a normal emotion, but what you do with it can result in you living a life filled with angry, aggressive reactions or a life with mindful, peaceful responses. Know that emotions are mere signals to tell you whether you are listening to your heart and taking care of yourself. Most unhappy people are simply unhappy because they are constantly doing what their hearts really don’t want to do. Listen to your heart – it knows what you need; and
• Express gratitude every day for everything because no matter what your test in life is, you are learning a lesson and therefore experiencing growth. Express gratitude and receive divine guidance to use your lessons to help others.
• PRINCESS R LAKSHMAN is a counsellor, clinical nutritionist, writer, narrative therapist, and certified life-coach. She is passionate about mind wellness and an advocate for kindness and selfcare. She lives in Sydney and will soon open mind wellness hubs in Fiji to provide free mental health counselling and workshops exclusively to Fiji residents. The views expressed are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper. She can be reached at info@princesslakshman.com
