The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.
There are so many ways people have tried to take care of themselves. At certain times face masks seemed like a great answer for a spa night. Sometimes people enjoy working out or going for a walk outside to get some fresh air. I am curious about what are some of the best things everyone else does when you feel like you need a moment to yourself?
Self-care is not only important during the school year and at times of high stress, but also at times where you feel too busy. Even though you feel like you have full schedule, I think it’s important that we all start finding time, whether it be an hour or 30 minutes or 10 minutes, to be by ourselves and just take a breath. I don’t believe that it has to be something very serious like going to a spa or anything fancy. Just an hour out at the nail salon to get your nails done, or a few minutes to call a friend or family member.
It’s important to remember that you are human. It is okay to get exhausted, run down, mentally drained, or any other way to put it. That is why I have continuously tried to find time to do an activity that makes me happy a couple times a week. During college, I’ve found it difficult to do a lot of self-care because I have so much more going on: classes, homework, sorority meetings, club meetings, time to study, and the list could continue. It sometimes seems impossible that I could even think to make time to get my nails done or go get frozen yogurt.
It is definitely something a lot of people can improve on, self-care, and it doesn’t seem to me emphasized enough! So go do something for you! Do something to make yourself happy and step away from the stress for a minute.
What are activities you do to relax? Have you ever had to tell your child to take some time to themselves to practice self-care? Is self-care encouraged in your home?