The concept of May being Mental Health Awareness Month dates as far back as 1949. It was started by Mental Health America, and has since then reached many other organizations and impacted millions of individuals across the world.

Self-care is an important aspect of good mental health.

Self-care is explanatory in itself, but it’s incredible how many people don’t take the time to look after their mind and body, how many people devalue themselves to the point where they believe they don’t deserve basic care. Every human being deserves to feel like they are worthy of being cared for, especially care coming from oneself.

OlgaPheonix.com defines a specific Self-Care Wheel, as shown in the featured image. The Self-Care Wheel has five components: Physical, Psychological, Emotional, Spiritual, Personal, and Professional.

Physical self-care involves taking care of your own body. This includes being active, eating healthy, knowing when to take time off for yourself, massages, and to an extent, even being sexual. But if you’re a minor, a better alternative would be getting enough sleep at night.

Psychological self-care involves seeking out others to keep your mind healthy. It includes attending talk therapy, possibly joining support groups for whatever issues you may face, and getting a grasp on better self-awareness. Psychological is all about practicing asking and receiving help.

Emotional self-care involves how you yourself keep your mind healthy. This includes self-affirmations, practicing self-love, forgiving yourself and others, and allowing yourself to expose your emotions, such as crying when you’re sad, and laughing when you’re happy and having a good time.

Spiritual self-care involves accepting yourself on a higher level, or through religion. It includes praying, singing and dancing and playing, volunteering for a cause you’re passionate about, and self-reflection to help better understand how to accept and love yourself, whether it be through a deity or simply your own being.

Personal self-care involves your personal relationship with yourself and others. This includes self-discovery and learning who you are, planning goals to help figure out what you want to do in life, spending time with family and friends, and discovering hobbies that you can enjoy. It’s all about you really.

Professional self-care involves how to take care of yourself in the workplace. It includes knowing when to take time off for your own mental health, getting support from your colleagues, and knowing that you don’t have to work all day, that sometimes, you just got to leave work at work.

This may seem like a big to do list, but really, it’s all about working to take care of yourself, because at the end of the day, no matter how hard it may seem to believe, you matter. You are important. You are loved by many people, and you deserve to feel that love for yourself.