How To Tell If Your Self-Care Routine Is Actually Working

Plenty of us have heard time and time again about the importance of self-care. It’s a chance to take a break from the rest of the world and to give our health and mental health the relaxation it needs to thrive. While there are so many ways we can enjoy self-care, it can be tough to know if it’s actually making a difference.

Learning how to tell if your self-care is actually working could be the thing that so many of us need. After all, if things aren’t giving us the results we hoped for, it could be time to shake up our self-care routines into ones that make a difference in our lives.

Are you taking part in self-care for internal or external reasons?

Before going any further, take a moment to think about what motivates your self-care routine. Do you head to yoga because it allows your mind to switch off and organize your thoughts, or do you like taking mirror selfies and competing with others on social media? Trying to do self-care because you want others to praise your actions or give you validation isn’t a reason to go through the motions. Instead, we should be motivated to do self-care because it leaves us with the feelings we want to get from the activity, such as feeling more relaxed, distressed, and ready to combat the rest of our lives. It’s all about being fully immersed in the moment without thinking about what others will say.

Are you overly focused on what your self-care is achieving?

One of the more common self-care mistakes is to forget about why you are there in the first place and instead focus on what you’re achieving. This could be spending that spin class worrying about where you compare to the rest of the class and how many times a week you head to the gym instead of losing yourself to the moment and letting your body enjoy the endorphin rush. It could even be going as far as seeing all the boxes checked on your fitness tracking app instead of what all that movement means for your body. If you find yourself stressing about living up to certain expectations and meeting goals, you’re not getting the desired results from your self-care routine.

Are you working too hard to make sure your life’s optimized?

Self-care routines are often sold as things to optimize our lives. That meal delivery kit means we can save time preparing food. Bullet journals could be the things we need to become more organized. If they save time and worry, they could be the additions they need, but if you find yourself more worried about whether or not your life is optimized than reaping the rewards, it could be a problem. Think of it like this. You spend a long time researching how to get an extra hour in your day, but once it’s there, you don’t know what to do with yourself or how to relax. Instead, you might spend that hour thinking of new ways you can cut down time and optimize other aspects of your life. The problem? You don’t get the rewards that come from allowing yourself some downtime.

Do you feel guilty as you enjoy your self-care?

There should never be guilty feelings that come from indulging in self-care. So what if you want to spend the afternoon binging your favorite TV shows instead of journaling about your day? If you have the time, there’s no need to feel guilty. Still, society has a funny way of making us think we should be working at all hours and constantly driving to achieve more in life. This could just be a sign that we need to learn how to change our mindset. It could also be a sign that our self-care isn’t working. Rather than go all-or-nothing throughout the day, why not simplify things by adding 15 minutes of self-care to each day instead? It’s a start, and hopefully, we won’t feel guilty for “wasting our time.” Once we start to feel comfortable doing something we love - and often mentally need - we can begin to increase our self-care time.

Learning how to tell if your self-care routine is actually working can be challenging, but it could be the wake-up call that so many of us need to shake things up. If you’re more worried about what the world thinks or living up to imaginary standards set by society, are you really taking the time to look after yourself?