Despite the circumstances, we face in life we all need to look at our health for maintaining our joy and quality of life. Self-care is one of our major responsibilities leading to stability, clarity, balance, certainty, consistency, social connection, and simplicity in our lives.
Self-care adds to our joy and quality of life. Without self-care, our mental health and physiological health begins to deteriorate.
Joy
Over prolonged periods of time, a lack of self-care can lead to diseases and illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
Pain management is a form of self-care. I’ve personally experienced being in excruciating pain where my tolerance levels and patience dwindled to almost nothing. Had I taken my pain management medication on time, the discomfort wouldn’t have gotten beyond my pain tolerance threshold, affecting my ability to cope. Chronic pain is very difficult for anyone to live with and can be especially trying for those living with us under the same roof when we neglect proper pain management. In my case, self-care was about taking my meds on time to avoid getting to that pain level, and without affecting others around me.
Hope
Even though our source of Joy and hope may be rooted in Christ, our walk can be weakened by our suffering that without self-care can lead to a loss of hope. Hope is an essential ingredient enabling us to pull ourselves up out of desperate situations. When God is our source of hope we can face anything. However, when facing life’s most difficult and painful hurdles, we need to love ourselves through it with proper self-care.
Time out
While self-care can mean different things to each individual, for some of us it means taking time to rest, unplugging from the digital world and reconnecting with God, the creator of all things good.
When it comes to taking care of ourselves we can’t afford to neglect our mental health which is part of taking a holistic approach to self-care for allowing ourselves to become the best version of ourselves.
Statistics show that depression and anxiety are on the rise. See the Infographic and download the Church Life Survey full report.
See your doctor if you require help with self-care and talk to your church leaders for support with your spiritual walk.
Sandra Ciminelli
Cred. Dip.Couns.(Christian)
Have you thought about becoming a qualified counsellor? It’s a great opportunity to learn how you can extend God's love and grace to the hurting out in the community.
For those who would like to enrol in aifc’s accredited Christian counselling courses we have two intakes per year for courses commencing around the following months:
Enrolment Season - opens approximately 2 months prior to our courses commencing. Enrol online here during our enrolment season.
We also offer two modes of study:
A Master of Counselling course was introduced in 2018.