Self-Care: Mindfulness Exercises, Self-Awareness & More
Self-care is essential to well-being, yet many treat it as optional or indulgent. It doesn’t require expensive workouts, spa treatments, or fancy products. Instead, true self-care nurtures your inner world, building self-awareness and helping you connect deeply with others and your surroundings. This blog explores practical self-care strategies, including mindfulness exercises and other meaningful ways to bring more care into your daily life.
Self-Care and Boundaries in Communication
Do you often adjust to others’ needs without considering how it affects your well-being? Do you dread sharing parts of your life with loved ones because of how they might respond? If you answered “yes,” you might benefit from setting supportive boundaries.
Boundaries are more than just staying in your own lane. Neither are they about demanding behavior from others. Boundaries can deepen connection without requiring you to abandon yourself.
A helpful starting point is using mindfulness exercises to check in with yourself after interacting with someone who causes you stress.
When you walk away from the interaction, take a moment to notice what kinds of thoughts are running through your head, the emotions that are surfacing, and the sensations in your body. If you notice a pattern of needing to recover after these interactions, ask yourself where a boundary might help. Maybe it’s setting limits on certain topics, expressing how a joke made you feel, or removing yourself as a go-between in a conflict. There’s no right or wrong way to set a boundary.
The trickiest—and often most important—part of setting a boundary is how you communicate it. The key is to be direct—while staying kind and mindful of how it affects the other person.
Self-Care by Nurturing Your Inner Child
Another way to take care of yourself is to take care of your inner child. Most people can recall a time earlier in life when they didn’t get what they needed and felt deep emotional pain. Even in less extreme cases, you may have lacked support in certain areas due to your environment. In any case, consider what you may have longed for but didn’t receive. You may find it nourishing to meet those needs now.
For example, maybe you avoided art as a child because your caregivers didn’t value creativity—or told you that you weren’t good at it. Now, you love art but feel disconnected from your own creativity. Try taking an art class. Let yourself experiment with different crafts without judging the outcome.
Reconnecting with your inner child isn’t about rewriting the past—it’s about giving yourself the support and freedom you’ve always deserved.
Rituals for Consistent Self-Care
Rituals, including mindfulness exercises, can be a great way to tap into your values and help you live them out consistently. They’re agreements you make with yourself. Every time you honor them, you strengthen that relationship and build a more positive, secure sense of self.
If you’re not sure where to start, spend time identifying your core values. Core values are the principles that guide your decisions, shape your priorities, and give your life meaning. They might include creativity, compassion, honesty, connection, or growth. Identifying your values helps you focus on what matters most and choose rituals that reflect who you are. From there, choose a ritual that aligns with your values and intentionally build it into your daily or weekly routine.
Rituals don’t have to be elaborate to be effective—they just need to be meaningful to you.
Developing Self-Awareness for Better Self-Care
After running a women’s group for mothers, I’ve noticed that many people struggle with self-care simply because they don’t know what they need. If you can’t identify your needs in the moment, it’s nearly impossible to care for yourself in a meaningful way. This is especially true for caregivers, who are constantly putting others’ needs ahead of their own.
If this sounds familiar, take time to identify the warning signs that you’ve gone beyond your capacity or left a need unmet. These self-awareness signals might be physical—like sweaty palms, a tight chest, flushed face, or queasy stomach. Emotional signals might show up too—like feeling overwhelmed, ignored, anxious, or fatigued. You might also notice troubling thought patterns that loop in your mind.
Once you recognize these signs, respond with kindness. That might mean stepping away, asking for support, or doing something that helps you feel grounded or connected.
Self-awareness gives you the insight to act with care—before stress or disconnection take hold.
Forest Bathing: One of Many Mindfulness Exercises to Support Your Self-Care Practice
If you’re looking for a more concrete practice, consider mindfulness exercises such as forest bathing—a calming ritual that may be new to you.
Forest bathing (shinrin-yoku) is a Japanese mindfulness practice—formally named in the 1980s—that invites you to engage your senses while walking in nature.
Even if you already spend time in nature, consider making it more intentional. Go solo, learn about local plants and animals, and focus on connecting to your breath as you walk.
If mindfulness feels unfamiliar, you can use a simple grounding technique called the 5-4-3-2-1 method. As you walk, try to notice:
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can touch
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
This practice can help any time you need grounding—but it’s especially powerful when you’re fully immersed in nature. The more often you practice forest bathing, the more natural it becomes to slow down, reconnect, and restore your sense of balance.
Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Council for Relationships.
Therapy & Psychiatry at Council for Relationships
Council for Relationships has over 80 therapists and psychiatrists offering integrated care across Pennsylvania and New Jersey since 1932. We support individuals, couples, families, and caregivers with collaborative, expert care—online and in person.
About Therapist Hannah Reiss, MFT
Hannah Reiss, MFT, is a systemically trained therapist at Council for Relationships. She works with individuals, couples, and families of all ages and backgrounds, providing care in our Center City and University City Philadelphia offices, as well as online. Hannah focuses on helping clients develop self-care skills, explore their values, build self-awareness, and create meaningful change through a collaborative and tailored approach. She specializes in supporting adolescents, young adults, and couples navigating life transitions, integrating mindfulness and relational practices to foster connection and resilience.
Want to work with Hannah? Request an appointment today.
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