Self-care is key to our overall wellbeing and can provide benefits lasting for both short and long-term periods. It’s about maintaining our physical and emotional health and can provide protection during times of distress.
Within self-care lies self-soothing, a component aimed at calming ourselves during moments of high emotional turbulence. It’s important to know the difference between the two, and work towards supporting yourself through healthy strategies when challenging situations arise.
Self-soothing
Self-soothing is an emotion-focused coping mechanism we often turn to when dealing with unwanted emotions or events. Its goal is to help individuals regulate their emotions and find short-term relief during distressing times.
Self-soothing activities can look like:
- Buying a little treat
- Eating a block of chocolate
- Watching tv
- Doom scrolling
- Taking a bath
- Cuddling
- Singing
- Taking a break from responsibilities
- Glass of wine
- Going for a walk
While these activities provide temporary relief from negative experiences, they don’t offer long term stability. It's important to note that self-soothing does not always lead to emotional regulation and can sometimes result in emotional numbing. Self-soothing habits, especially when they involve behaviours that have potential to become harmful if used too often or excessively. When a self-soothing activity becomes harmful it may look like a glass of wine turning into a bottle of wine, having chocolate every night, going over budget buying yourself little things or spending too much time doom scrolling on your phone. This is where the significance of self-care comes into play.
Self-care
Self-care involves behaviours and activities that promote long-term health and well-being by addressing both immediate and future needs. Research has shown that regular self-care is associated with lower stress levels, increased well-being and enhanced quality of life.
Self-care activities can look like:
- Exercising regularly
- Seeing a GP
- Going to the dentist
- Engaging in mindfulness regularly
- Eating healthy
- Yoga
- Going to therapy
- Setting and keeping boundaries (e.g. learning to say no to things that cause unnecessary stress)
- Getting enough sleep
Striking a healthy balance
Self-care focuses on achieving both short-term relief and long-term well-being, while self-soothing focuses on immediate emotional relief. While self-soothing can provide relief through healthy activities such as going for a walk or taking a bath, it can sometimes lead to harmful behaviours as mentioned above.
It is important to strike a balance between immediate relief and long-term wellbeing. Incorporating self-care practices into our daily lives can lead to decrease in stress levels, overall improvement in well-being and better quality of life. By making self-care a regular part of our routines, we can cultivate resilience and better navigate life's challenges.
About Asuria Wellbeing Services
Asuria provides a range of wellbeing services to empower you with the knowledge, tools, and skills to help you get and keep a job. The Asuria Wellbeing Specialist Team are highly trained, registered allied health professionals, including psychologists, social workers and counsellors. We will support you every step of the way, by conducting evidence-based assessments and delivering counselling interventions if you are having trouble finding or keeping a job.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Asuria’s Wellbeing Specialist services, call 1800 773 338 or visit our website.
Written by Olivia Wright, Registered Counsellor - Asuria Wellbeing SpecialistOlivia Wright works in our Wellbeing Team as a Wellbeing Specialist to provide Allied Health services through her experience as a dedicated counsellor. Bringing years of experience to her role within Asuria, Olivia and her team work to provide support of the highest quality to our clients. |
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1800 773 338
