Many people including college students are overwhelmed and stressed throughout their day. When they are at the peak point of their stress from their own situation, they try a self-care activity in order to decompress their own stress.

According to Betterhelp, self-care can have positive outcomes when people take care of themselves  by their physical and emotional wellness. The benefits of doing self-care includes lowering the blood pressure, being less anxious, and feeling good about themselves. As the self-care routine is implemented, it can help with having a healthy life.

Naomi Vescio, an Oakton student, explained her self-care activities in order to lower the stress on herself. “Definitely exercise, that’s a big one. Even on days where I’m lazy and don’t want to do anything, exercise is a really good activity,” she said.

People don’t always do self-care because of work, family, or making excuses. Karen Suarez, an Oakton student, describes her experience of not being able to do her self-care routine, but makes changes depending on her day.

“I would prioritize something else, so instead of taking a walk if I didn’t feel like it, I would take a nap instead and that is still caring for my physical health. I would switch off depending on what my mood was that day, how much energy I had, and so on,” Suarez said.

Since COVID-19 has been all over the world for one year, people have changed their self-care routine in order to ensure everyone’s safety. It shows that they can learn a new self-care routine that they have never tried before. Helen Aw, a community member, explains how her self-care routine has changed and found a new routine that enjoyed doing it.

“One thing that’s changed because prior to COVID, my form of physical self-care was going to a circus studio. I used to take lessons in aerial silk with fabrics and spinning in the air so you’re climbing as high as 30 feet in the air. Because of COVID, I’ve decided to forgo that temporarily and that activity is really vigorous. I’ve had to find a new way and cycling has been it,” Aw said.

According to Betterhelp, boundaries can have a person to focus on themselves and not focusing on other people. A person is focusing on their physical and mental health as their priority before anyone else.

Suarez described how it is important she need to focus on taking care of herself than other people in her surroundings. “When I take time to do my self-care, when it’s me and my self-care activity, I realized that I like to focus on myself a little bit too. I’m used to being busy talking to people or doing this and that, and hoping from one thing to the next. When I’m doing my self-care, I can just step back and be myself for a bit,” she said.

As people are implementing their own self-care routine, they are learning new lessons along the way. Suarez explained how it is important to manage your priorities of the self-care routine. “If you skip a day because you’re too tired or busy, it does affect you in the long run. You might not notice it that week, but you might notice it along the line,” she said.

Aw’s advice for people who have not done self-care before is to make sure that they find something that is enjoyable for them. “If you see that something is awry in one part of your life and you want to take an action to preserve your health, then find something that will help and continue doing it. Forgive yourself if you fall off a wagon one day, then get up, dust yourself off, and try again,” Aw said.