Self Care for Mental Health
What is Self-Care?
Self-care is more than a buzzword; it is an essential part of maintaining our overall well-being. It’s about making time to nourish your mind and body so that you can show up as your best self in every aspect of life. Self-care is not just an act in isolation — it is an act of connecting deeply with yourself and others. Taking small, consistent steps - like moving your body, practicing gratitude, or simply pausing to breathe - can help lower stress and boost your energy. When we prioritize self-care, we remind ourselves that rest and balance are not luxuries; they are necessities. Mindfulness, play, and connection all play powerful roles in helping our brains stay healthy and resilient. Even a ten minute activity can make a big difference. Explore how to bring self-care into your daily routine and start feeling more grounded, peaceful, and fulfilled.
Why is Self-Care Important?
Taking care of ourselves nourishes our bodies and our brains. We are continually changing beings in response to the environment around us and the things that we do. Our bodies are directly impacted by the food we eat, just as our mental health is directly impacted by our daily activities. This gives us the opportunity to positively influence our mental health.
Incorporating self-care activities into daily life can help improve and maintain mental health, lower stress, decrease risk of illness, increase energy, and increase resilience to stress. Some research suggests that practicing self-care can help you live longer.
Where Do I Start?
Dr. Dan Siegel’s Healthy Mind Platter is an excellent place to start learning. As a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, he is well versed in expanding self-care as more than just a daily task, but as a way of being. You may be surprised by how many mundane moments throughout the day can be formulated into a form of self-care. When practiced with intention and care, daily activities like sleeping, cooking a meal, or having downtime can turn into a effective form of self-care.
The idea behind the Health Mind Platter is that we require a balanced diet for optimal brain health across the lifespan, just as we need a balanced diet for healthy bodies. To best care for ourselves, it is important to strengthen connections within the brain itself, but also with others and the broader world. For this reason, the seven habits that Dr. Siegel and his team encourage include individual activities as well as time with others and the world around us.
Dan Siegel’s Seven Habits that Support Optimal Brain Health:
Focus Time: focusing closely on tasks in a goal-oriented way supports deep connections in our brains
Playtime: giving the space for spontaneous or creative activities supports new connections in our brains
Connecting Time: connecting with other people and nature activates the brain’s relational pathways
Physical Time: moving our bodies and getting exercise helps strengthen our brains and releases positive hormones
Time In: reflecting internally and bringing awareness to present moment experience including thoughts, feelings, and sensations better integrates the brain (for example: mindfulness, prayer, journalling)
Downtime: taking time to be non-focused and letting our minds wander — yes brain downtime is important for brain health!
Sleep Time: resting our brains deeply with sufficient sleep is important for memory consolidation and recovery
Are you Ready to Make a Single Change?
Self-care can be things that are already incorporated in your everyday life, such as getting enough sleep or eating healthy food. It can also include things you may not typically do every day, like going for a walk or talking time for a conversation with a friend.
Looking at the seven habits that support a healthy mind can feel overwhelming if healthy habits have never been modelled, if healthy habits are not supported by those around you, or if you feel under-resourced to add one more thing to your plate. If you are feeling overwhelmed or under-resourced, it may help to think of the healthy mind platter as aspirational. Perhaps pick one habit that is outside of a way that you normally support yourself but an activity that is also not completed out of your reach.
When you try the new activity, take a minute to reflect on it - what impact did this activity have on you today? Do you feel more connected, rested, or joyful? If not, could you tweak something and try the experiment again tomorrow? (Ps. If you reflect on your activity, you can check that “Time In” box too knowing you built internal connections in your ever evolving brain by reflecting!)
Taking time to connect with yourself, others, and the world around you is essential to supporting a healthy mind. Restoring connection to self and others has always been at the heart of our work at the Centre for Restorative Mental Health. We hope that your journey towards self-care becomes much more than a grab-and-go Starbucks coffee and a pedicure. We hope that taking care of yourself becomes an active exploration of what it is like to connect with yourself and others, and that in time, it feels like soulful nourishment.
Written by: Lainey Granley & Kendell Banack, PhD, RPsych
For a more comprehensive understanding of Dr. Dan Siegel’s Mind Platter, or some other ideas related to self-care, read more in the brochure created by Jenna Worton : Self-Care Guide