Men's Health Month: The Importance of Self-Care
3 MINUTE READ
3 MINUTE READ
As every well-groomed guy knows, there’s value to self-care that exceeds mere esthetics. You take care of yourself to look better, sure — but you also want to feel your best every day. When you feel good in your body and are mentally centered, you function better and tackle the day with more skill. So no stigma here when it comes to guys and self-care: We’ve got your back with that.
We’re all about normalizing self-care for men. While the term self-care might bring to mind women’s yoga classes and detox salt baths, self-care is for everyone. Everyone needs time to care for their health. And if you love yoga, that’s cool, too. Self-care is anything that helps keep your body strong and your mental health resilient.
Taking care of yourself means that you can manage stress better, get more done in a day, and show up for the people you care about. When times are rough and the daily stress mounts, you can’t afford to ignore self-care. Your health is serious business, so if you tend to think of self-care as something frivolous, it’s time to reframe your thinking. Here are five reasons that men need daily self-care.
Since women influencers tend to dominate the self-care scene, you might not think of self-care as something for men. But one of the most obvious and accessible self-care practices is exercise. If you work out, that’s self-care. And working out helps you live longer when you combine it with a healthy diet.
Taking care of yourself means that you have more energy to meet the demands of your relationships. And solid relationships are critical to stress resilience and quality of life. Relationships tend to suffer when the stress piles on, and we get more reactive. If you’re stressed and fighting more with your significant other, you need some space to take care of yourself.
Mental health awareness includes the understanding that you need breaks as needed to regroup. We feel stressed when life’s demands exceed our bandwidth. And this isn’t the easiest thing for a lot of guys to admit, but stress can take a toll on your mental health. Managing stress well is a significant predictor for better mental health outcomes, which means less depression, pessimism, addiction, and anxiety.
The long-term effects of stress can hurt your work performance over time. Depression, fatigue, trouble concentrating, and burnout can stall your career. Further, your unmanaged stress can hurt your relationships with your boss and colleagues. To show up as the best version of you each day, you need to keep your energy reserves up by doing things that make you feel good (in a healthy way).
When it comes down to it, you don’t need to justify why you deserve to feel good, stay healthy, and enjoy your life.
Think of it this way: Any practice that helps you manage stress keeps you healthier, longer. Meditation, exercise, playing fetch with the dog — all self-care for men. If it relaxes you and you love it, it’s self-care, and that’s damn manly.
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