Protecting your mental health, staying away from others’ problems, and prioritizing oneself. “You can’t pour from an empty cup”
Self-care has quickly become a point of focus with increased interest in physical and mental health. We as a society are beginning to understand now more than ever that we can only truly achieve our full potential when we prioritize ourselves. Yet our innate need for altruism and social connectedness can lead to us forgetting to ask ourselves what we need. This can often lead to compassion fatigue which is the phenomenon when a person constantly looking after others feels drained from an excess of constant empathy.
In contemporary times, prioritizing oneself before others is challenging. An individual may worry about judgment from others or feel egocentric while attending to one’s own needs. However, including self-care in daily life and making mental health a priority is essential. It can be helpful to develop healthy coping mechanisms to deal effectively with a heavy workload, professional demands, and our lives, improving our physical and mental well-being.
Research suggests that prioritizing oneself involves being compassionate towards ourselves. This can be achieved by maintaining sleep hygiene, regularly exercising, and practicing mindfulness and meditation. It is crucial to frequently check one’s own emotions and stress levels. Moreover, everyone needs time to pause, reflect and reset to ensure we don’t exhaust our mental, physical and emotional resources. Therefore, it’s vital to prioritize mental health and refuel our reservoir of emotions.
Highly compassionate people occasionally put their own needs aside for others and may feel second-hand stress. This relates to neurotic tendencies that encourage poor life outcomes and increase pressure and the risk of depression. Doing tasks for others can result in feelings of exhaustion or overwhelmingness, as well as a failure to remember to take care of oneself.
It might be detrimental to one’s mental health to always want to be helpful to others generating solutions to their issues. This is connected to the concept of compassion fatigue. In essence, compassion fatigue impairs one’s capacity to reason properly, control emotions, feel productive and hold onto hope.
Many stress-related physical and mental illnesses, can be attributed to compassion fatigue. It’s crucial to realize that putting oneself first is not being selfish; instead, an act of self-care.
The following measures can be taken:
● Self-awareness: acknowledge your emotions and needs. Your objectives, desires, and aspirations should also be satisfied. Have gentle reminders that it’s valid to prioritize your needs.
● Establishing Boundaries: Recognize your emotional and physical boundaries. Setting boundaries is a way to safeguard your needs and emotions. It enables you to revitalize and accomplish your objectives while strengthening your identity.
● Learning to Say No: Be assertive and respectfully convey your boundaries.
● Fostering independence: Taking care of your loved ones’ needs all the time, may encourage reliance on them. Allow people to experience adversity and do things independently to mature and acquire crucial life skills. Encourage people to assume responsibility while easing them into independence.
Importance of Professional Counseling: A friend or family member may listen to you, but they aren’t professionally, technically qualified or experienced to offer you professional advice. If you wish you can contact us at MindTribe to receive help from our team of expert psychologists.
About MindTribe.in.
MindTribe Founder Dr. Prerna Kohli, India’s eminent psychologist, established the company to leverage the strength of the online to make counseling affordable and accessible to everyone. MindTribe provides counseling, workshops, support groups, forums, and eLearning.
About the Author.
Dr. Prerna Kohli, is an eminent psychologist, a published author, a four-time gold medalist, an awardee by the President of India for her contributions to Mental Health, and the founder of MindTribe.in. You can learn more about her by clicking here www.drprernakohli.in
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of MindTribe.in, the Founders, or management team.
Acknowledgement: All images used are open source and from Unsplash.