Remember to Look After Yourself – It’s Self Care Week

This week is Self Care Week. The idea of this is to bring attention to the need for people to look after themselves and take time out for yourself. This is especially true when families have elderly relatives, full time jobs and children to care for. Whilst this sounds an obvious thing to do, often people forget to listen to their bodies and instead, rush around trying to fit too much into each day or their health prevents them from looking after themselves properly.

According to The Self Care Forum the definition of Self Care is:

The actions that individuals take for themselves, on behalf of and with others in order to develop, protect, maintain and improve their health, well being or wellness.

This starts with the daily choices that we all make – it is good for our health to clean our teeth at least twice a day for example. Having a healthy lifestyle is another example of which daily choices we decide to make each day. Binge drinking is not healthy but eating five portions of fruit or vegetables a day is. Choosing the right choice is all part of self care. For a variety of self care/help guides from NHS Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, please visit https://web.ntw.nhs.uk/selfhelp/.

Acquire Care Ltd. can also help you to self care. Perhaps you wish to stay at home but are having difficulty to do certain tasks, then we can help. Whether you need care for an hour or all day, we can visit your home and make life easier for you. For more information please see our website which lists the services we offer or contact us on 01865 601010.

Not having the knowledge or confidence to decide what is good for ourselves and our bodies is a major reason why people do not self care. If people feel unwell or under-the-weather, knowing why gives them confidence on how to solve the problems. If a person has a minor ailment, perhaps this could be self-managed rather than rush to a doctor for advice. Would an over-the-counter medicine be better than antibiotics? Could the minor ailment be a self-managed ailment? It all depends on the severity and duration of the symptoms. Sometimes people visit a doctor for reassurance that nothing is seriously wrong or believe that a prescription is better than a chemist’s medicine even if they both contain the same ingredients. Of course, some illnesses or problems need a specialist’s help. These come under the headings of long term conditions, acute conditions, psychiatric problems or major trauma. However, often, once the illness or problem has been treated or cured by the health professional and when the person feels better, self care can begin again. Again, this could be the time to contact Acquire Care Ltd. so that we can provide helpful friendly care for you. Think about how you can look after your self with help from Acquire Care Ltd: give yourself some love and affection and you might feel a lot better. Sometimes, something as easy as relaxing in a bath, rather than having a quick shower, could be part of your self care routine. With help from Acquire Care, you could give time to yourself every day.