Help, my friends are talking about self-care but I am not sure I get it.

It’s ok not to know what self-care is - we’ve got your back.

Self-Care is the idea of taking care of yourself, physically and mentally so you can live a healthy, happy and fulfilled life.

When you look after yourself, you improve both your physical health (the way your body feels and functions) and your mental health (the way your mind feels, like your moods and feelings and the way it affects your life). The result? Your life improves too.

Without realising, you probably already do things that make you feel better physically (like playing sport) and mentally (like laughing with your friends). That’s self-care.

In fact, it is not very hard to add a little self-care into your daily routine, you just need to switch the habits that don’t help you, for enjoyable moments that do.

To make it simpler for you, we have come up with a few ideas that you can apply right away:

• Be mindful of what you do – it means understanding why you do something but also doing something with a meaningful intention, for instance, talking to someone with kindness knowing that it will make them feel happy. You can be mindful when drinking a cup of hot cocoa to fuel your body with warmth and energy, try really enjoying and savouring it as opposed to drinking it because you’re bored.
• Take some time to look after your skin – who said washing your face had to be a chore? Make it a beautiful, relaxing moment that you look forward to all day long. Massaging your products into your skin will instantly relax your mind but also make your skin glow. We created products that soothe and nourish your skin but also warm your heart. Really. Try our Super Nice Manuka Honey & Vitamin E Face Moisturiser it is like a comforting cuddle for your skin.
• Eat nutritious food. Good food is easy. Junk food will make you feel sluggish after 10 minutes, so learn what’s good for you. Look for healthier alternatives to your favourite treats, for example there are tons of recipes for more nutrient dense brownies you can bake. Plus, cooking and baking is relaxing too.
• Sleep like a baby. Babies are always happy right? and they have the best skin. Go to bed earlier at night and get those ten extra minutes of sleep that you were wishing for when you woke up the previous morning.
• Listen to your favourite music and dance. Music brightens your day. Dancing makes you happy and your body releases happy hormones when you move. Combined the two and you’re guaranteed to feel good instantly. Again a great mindful exercise!
• Take time out to appreciate all the things you love in your life – you can literally just look around you and make a mental list. Or you can write them down so whenever you are feeling negative thoughts, you can read positive, happy thoughts that will bring a smile back to your face.
• Write down your feelings – when you take time to write how you feel, you also take time to process your emotions and you can take some time to be calm. Journaling is mind-soothing but it also helps your brain to structure your thoughts and it encourages your mind to be kinder to yourself.
• Fill your mind with positive thoughts. Choose positive affirmations to repeat throughout the day. Research shows that positive thinking is proven to affect a person’s behaviour in a positive way.

There are tons of self-care ideas available out there and it is important that you find what works for you.  To help you, you can visit great resources like Youthline who have some good suggestions to improve your mental health.   There are also great self-care info in magazines a favourite of ours is Teen Breathe.  You can also check out guided relaxation apps like Headspace. Headspace is even on Netflix so all you need to do is press play! Your GP and school counsellor are also good people to go to for advice on self-care, so make sure you ask them for a safe source of information.