The 6 Types Of Self Care: How to Craft Your ‘Owners Manual’

Hi, I'm Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach.

If you were a car like my Mini Cooper, you’d come with an owner’s manual, filled with all the info you need to keep running smoothly on all cylinders.  When your check engine light went on, you’d think, “Whew! thank goodness for that light, or I'd forget it’s been 10,000 miles already, and it’s time for my oil change!”

Furthermore, imagine your friends and family are also vehicles, and they have dashboard sensors that alert them when it’s time for service, oil changes or if their tire’s low on air.  How fantastic because your car posse, or fleet, gets the importance of maintenance!  Your car family would never gently tease you about your indulgent self-care or maintenance habits.  Of course not, they’re vehicles too, and all cars need service!  We don’t indulge our cars. We perform regular preventative maintenance.

Wouldn’t it be easy if we came with owners’ manuals and dashboard sensors?  But alas, unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all manual for our self-care. 

We must each take responsibility through research, trial, and error to discover our routine maintenance; our self-care regime that keeps our engine running on all cylinders.  And we’re not just physical bodies. We also have to nurture our minds and spirit.  We are infinitely more complex than our cars to say the least!

In addition, we must navigate our self-care in a society that may talk a big game about individuality and self-expression, however,  as anyone who has ever prioritized their self-care knows, you may come up against comments about your ‘’high maintenance’ or ‘picky habits.’ 

Self-care, or as I prefer to think of it, preventative or regular maintenance is simply a part of life and not necessarily some indulgent spa day filled with manicures, face masks, and bubble baths.  Unless it is, and that is absolutely your call because you are the author of your owner's manual.  

There are six types of self-care: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and practical. 

Physical self-care is activities that promote your physical bodies’ health, such as emphasizing sleep, eating healthfully, moving your body, and breathing fresh air. 

Mental self-care is any activity that stimulates your mind or your intellect—for instance, taking a class, reading a book, learning a new skill, and solving puzzles. 

Emotional self-care activities are those that help you connect with, process, and handle emotions like journaling, working with a therapist, talking with a friend, creative pursuits such as painting or sculpting, or spending time with our beloved pets. 

Spiritual self-care nurtures your heart and soul and helps you feel connected to a larger purpose.  It’s not necessarily religious, but it is for some.  For others, their spiritual self-care looks like walks in nature, meditation, or yoga.  

Social self-care activities deepen your connection with others.  Like walks with friends, lunch dates, phone and zoom calls.

And lastly,

Practical self-care activities are the to-do’s you complete that prevent future stress, such as sticking to a budget, saving for retirement, cleaning out your closets, laying out your clothes for the week, batch cooking, or taking your car in to get it serviced. 

Sometimes the same activity as a walk in nature would be considered physical, emotional, and spiritual self-care for the hiker reveling in her surroundings. Yet, for another, who’s sorting through a challenge at work, that same hike would fill her physical and practical self-care buckets. 

One way to consider feeling out of balance in your life would be to say that you are highlighting one area of your self-care over another.  Maybe you’ve been working overtime, prioritizing your practical self-care while ignoring your physical self-care letting your sleep, food, and exercise routines slip.

I suggest picking a day.  How about yesterday, for instance,  and list all the activities you completed during the day.  Then, go down the list, and next to each activity, write which areas of self-care those activities fall under.
 
For instance:
Commuting to work while talking to your mom on the phone: social, and emotional self-care.

Walking the dog outside: emotional, spiritual, and physical self-care. 

Taking out the recycling: practical self-care.

Flossing your teeth: physical self-care.

Helped your kids with homework: mental, social, and practical self-care. 

Then tally it up.  Which self-care areas did you spend most of your time in yesterday?  Are there some absent areas?  Do you feel balanced and fulfilled?  If so, then you'll see which areas you value.  If you feel kind of wonky or ill at ease because you're ignoring certain arenas, well, how could you remedy that situation?  What needs to go? What do you need to add? Also, keep in mind, life is never perfect, and this could simply be an out-of-balance time for you as I think it is for many as we’re still practicing social distancing due to Covid-19.   

As lovely as it would be to have an owner's manual that would give us detailed guidelines on our self-care, we aren’t cars with instructions and dashboard sensors that tell us when we need to perform our regular maintenance.  Therefore,  it’s up to us to do our self-discovery work to discern our bodies, minds, and spiritual needs.  And it’s up to us to figure out which activities in those six arenas, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and practical, we require and then create our own owner’s manual.  It may look quite different from your friends’ and family's self-care routine, and that’s absolutely ok.  Own it!    

Self-care, or as I prefer to think of it, preventative or regular maintenance is simply a part of life and not some necessarily indulgent spa day filled with manicures, face masks, and bubble baths.  Unless it is, and that is absolutely your call because you are the author of your owner's manual.  

It’s time to recreate self-care from self-indulgent to, no more or less, than regular maintenance. 

I’m Liz Moser, a Mayo Clinic and National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach, and thank you for reading this blog about crafting your owners-manual as you navigate what self care looks like for you.  If you have any questions about this blog, about health and wellness, or wellness coaching with me, please reach out via my website at lizmosercoaching.com

Bye for now and be well,

Liz