Self-care is a topic I’m pretty passionate about…but I wasn’t always. As a child and teenager, I internalized the mindset that self-care is selfish and a waste of time. However, I now believe that this was due to understanding the concept of self-care in a very limiting way - bubble baths, long days at the spa, expensive clothes, grandiose vacations. As someone who developed a chronic illness in my early adulthood, my body forced me to reimagine and reevaluate my underlying beliefs about and ideas of self-care. As I learned to manage, and ultimately work towards healing, my illness, self-care became absolutely necessary.

In my quest to find healing in my physical body, I began to realize that both stress and healing are not limited to our physical bodies - they exist in our souls, our minds, our emotions, our relationships. Through my own personal research of other people’s work and conceptualizations of self-care, I discovered eight primary domains of self-care, which will be described briefly below and in depth in subsequent blog posts.

As you read, notice what happens within you when you consider self-care. Do you have an idea of what self-care is? How did you get that idea? Your family, religious institutions, social media, friends, workplace? How do you tend to and/or neglect your own self-care needs? Let’s explore together!

The 8 Domains of Self-Care (listed alphabetically, not in order of importance… they are all important!)

1. Emotional - Emotional self-care involves understanding and tending to our emotions.

2. Environmental - Environmental wellness means taking care of your global environment and your personal surroundings.

3. Financial - Financial wellness means taking steps to live within your financial means and living in, and planning for, future financial health.

4. Intellectual - Intellectual self-care includes doing something you enjoy that nourishes and challenges your mind. It expands your knowledge. Learning a new skill can be a type of self-care activity in this category.

5. Physical - Physical self-care involves taking care of our physical body’s needs.

6. Professional - Professional self-care can include taking care of yourself in the context of your work environment, but it can also include the ways in which you pursue career and vocation that are in alignment with your values.

7. Social - Social self-care involves understanding our social/connection needs and mindfully building conscious relationships.

8. Spiritual - Tending to spiritual self-care needs may or may not involve organized religion. It is an understanding of and tending to the spiritual domains of life, and may include our souls/spirits, our connection to a higher power, and meaning/purpose.

Curious to learn more? Check out my Self-Care Workbook for download on Etsy.