Mindfulness: Strategies to implement targeted self-care

For many, the COVID-19 pandemic felt overwhelming and stressful due to longer work hours and caring for self and others. More people experienced anxiety, fear, anger, sadness, and helplessness. Self-care is important. It enables anyone to maintain their physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and social health. Practicing mindfulness when implementing self-care can include a holistic approach that focuses on five areas: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual and Social (PEMSS). The mindfulness approach helps with properly implementing applicable, direct self-care from any of these areas. Approaching self-care from any of these five areas can be helpful in eradicating the challenges of identifying self-care behaviors that are effective for maintaining personal and professional well-being in the face of the unique demands of work. Mindfulness self-care can help identify untargeted self-care patterns and blocks to implementing targeted self-care as well as how to develop intentional, targeted self-care.