self care

Running head: SELF-CARE ACTIVITIES 1

Self-Care Plan

Lou Sorrells

Dr. Natalie Peterson

SOWK779

September 10, 2022

SELF-CARE ACTIVITIES 2

My self-care plan

My self-care plan will involve a wide range of activities that will cover; my physical care;

Psychological self-care; emotional self-care; Relationship self-care and professional self-care.

Moreover, my plan will include the activities that I undertake under each plan activity as well as

the frequency or the ratings for each activity.

Table 1: My Self-Care Plan Activity

Self-care Plan Activities under the plan Ratings/frequency of

undertaking these activities

(Out of 10)

1-4: Activity done very poorly

5-10: Activity done

ok/well/excellently

Physical Care  Eating regularly

 Doing Exercise

 Getting enough sleep

The rating for these activities is

7/10

Psychological care  Making time for self-

reflection

 Writing Journals

 Making time to get off

the internet, emails or

the internet

The rating for these activities is

5/10

Emotional self-care  Spending time with

people I love (Families

8/10

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and friends)

 Loving myself

 Finding things that

make me laugh/happy

 Positive self-talk

Spiritual self-care  Praying and self-

devotion

 Spending time with

nature

 Being open to

inspiration

 Reading inspirational

literature such as bible

7/10

Relationship self-care  Scheduling regular date

with my partner/spouse

 Enlarging my social

circle

 Calling or checking on

my relatives

6/10

Professional Self-care  Taking breaks from

intense workloads

 Taking time to interact

4/10

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with my co-workers

 Negotiating for my

needs (Promotions and

pay rise)

Reflection

After my graduation, there are various self-care practices that I need to work on. First, I need to

add more activities in my physical self-care. In most cases, I have been attending the gym in order

to improve my physical well-being. However, I have also realized that I need to add meditation

and running exercises to my schedule. I believe that mediation will be crucial in helping me to

control both physical and my mental well-being. It will help me to evaluate my strengths and

weaknesses and areas that I will need to improve for the future. Moreover, I also plan to be running

twice a day to improve flexibility of my body. Moreover, I need to burn more calories in order to

stay healthy. I have learned that running twice everyday helps people to improve flexibility and

release more calories from the body.

In terms of the psychological self-care, I also plan to integrate the Cognitive Behavior therapy into

my daily routines. However, I will be visiting a health expert who will be helping me on the best

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) methods to undertake. I believe that I have many fears that I

need to overcome in order to grow as a person. Examples of the fears that I need to overcome

include; the fear of losing friends and the fear trying to undertake new opportunities. I learned that

the CBT method is also effective in helping victims evaluate their thoughts and ideas in order to

become better people in the future. Another area that I will work on is my professional self-care. I

plan to undertake more exercises on how to become a team leader and cultivate positive group

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energy in all the organizations that I will be working for in the future. In the university, I have

worked with various groups and realized that I need to improve as my as my group contribution is

concerned. I plan to become a group leader in the future and hence, I will be undertaking various

sessions and exercises on how to become an effective group leader in the future.

However, when practicing self-care, there are various challenges that may arise. The biggest

challenges to self-care are diseases and injury. Injuries or diseases usually changes the functioning

of the body and also interferes with the plans of the victims. Moreover, negative attitudes towards

self-care are another aspect that may challenge the victims. Some self-care practices like gym

workouts, praying or meditation requires a lot of sacrifice and a high level of discipline. During the

initial stages of self-care practice, users may find it easy to undertake all the practices. However, as

they progress, they may find it challenging to continue following the same routines and abandon

the self-care practices. Furthermore, another problem towards practicing self-care is that most

people often tend to focus on other people’s needs at the expense of their requirements. In such

situations, it may be difficult for people to effectively evaluate their needs, control their emotions

or improve their physical well-being through self-care.

Practicing self-care is good but also challenging. Practicing self-care will help to improve my

physical well-being, control my state of mind and also help me to improve my thinking capacity.

However, I expect my sacrifice a lot when undertaking my self-care practices. For example, I will

need to follow a strict diet with natural foods and Zero alcohol. Moreover, I will also have to

sacrifice my time especially when undertaking my physical self-care. Sometimes, the urge of

hanging out with friends or going on social media can be strong and may inhibit me from

effectively undertaking all my self-care strategies.

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To address the negative coping strategies, there are various strategies that I have implemented.

First, I will set up reminders on my phone regarding the activities that I need to undertake and the

exact time for the activity. Having reminders is crucial as it will help to create time for my physical

care activities and avoid temptations that may limit me from effectively undertaking my self-care

activities. Secondly, I will rely on meditation practices to enhance my mental well-being.

Meditation helps people to evaluate their thoughts and eliminate negative behaviors. I believe that

through meditation will help me to scrutinize my thoughts and cope with the sacrifice that comes

with self-care activities. Moreover, I will also use my personal journals. I have always relied on

personal journals to undertake and fulfill all my exercises. I often prepare daily and weekly

journals that contain my crucial activities that I plan to achieve. I this case, I also believe that they

will help me to overcome my self-care barriers and negative emotional strategies.

Currently, my current level of resilience is very effective. Using my effective coping strategies, I

am able to undertake almost all my self-care activities. I also believe that when I integrate the

cognitive behavior therapy methods, I will be able to undertake and improve all my self-care

activities.

References

Butler, L. D., Mercer, K. A., McClain-Meeder, K., Horne, D. M., & Dudley, M. (2019).

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Six domains of self-care: Attending to the whole person. Journal of Human Behavior in the

Social Environment, 29(1), 107-124.

Orellana-Rios, C. L., Radbruch, L., Kern, M., Regel, Y. U., Anton, A., Sinclair, S., & Schmidt, S.

(2018).

Mindfulness and compassion-oriented practices at work reduce distress and enhance self-

care of palliative care teams: a mixed-method evaluation of an “on the job “program. BMC

palliative care, 17(1), 1-15.