As Valentine’s Day nears, students may find time to show love not only to their significant others, but also themselves. According to GoodTherapy.com, self-care describes the actions one might take to improve mental and physical health.
Here are five tips shared by Seton Hall students on self-care: Treat yourself
Charity Diamonon, a senior physics major, said she recommends that students find time to give themselves something you enjoy. “If I want to do something to start my day, I’ll treat myself to a latte in the morning. It sets the tone,” she said. Diamonon said selfcare is not limited to anyone, no matter what their relationship status is this Valentine’s Day. To her, self-care is “taking the time to love yourself” and knowing to “value who you are.”
“Looking after yourself is important because you’re the only one who’s ever with yourself all day,” Diamonon said. “Before you’re with anyone else, you are your own life partner.” She also said that setting time aside for personal care allows you to know not only “how you want to be treated, but how you should be treated.”
Be Active
Christiana Mones, a freshman diplomacy major, said she finds that going to the gym is an effective method of destressing. “It takes out your anger kind of, into an inanimate object,” she said.
Exercising also influences Mones to make changes in other aspects of her daily routine. “When I work out in the morning, I tend to eat healthier throughout the day,” she said.
“I do things that help me not think about the schoolwork,” Lamiyah Rajai, a freshman biology major, said. Her method of self-care is to dance and play basketball. “Sports is what has always made me happy with studying and it’s always been a balance that way,” Rajai said. “I didn’t do that during the first semester a lot, but I decided to do it now and it’s helped me a lot to be honest.”
Music
Listening to music is not the only way to destress. Nnamdi Ene, a senior physics major, uses self-care time to play instruments. “When I don’t feel like talking to anyone and because I live on campus, I’ll just go to the music room and play the piano there for like two hours and just get it out of my system,” Ene said. He said the benefit of self-care is getting to feel better about yourself on “off days.”
Hobbies
Aside from being active, Mones said she finds relaxation in one of her favorite hobbies. When asked what her self-care practices were, she said, “To me, it’s stress baking.” She said she believes self-care is necessary “so you don’t get depressed or psychotic.” Like others, Mones uses self-care to find a balance between rest and stress. She said her most popular treat to bake is “usually cookies, but sometimes pies because you can study while they go into the oven.”
Spa Night
Going to the spa is one method students recommend to relieve stress Cosmetician applying facial beauty mask for young beautiful woman at spa salon
Lorra de Guzman, a freshman nursing major, sets time aside to do a skincare routine. She said she recommends time for self-care, no matter how short it is.
“As trivial as it might sound, I do believe in giving yourself time at the beginning of the day, at the end of the day, even if it may be only like 10 minutes,” de Guzman said.
“It’s such an important concept to your mental health,” de Guzman said. “It gives you a little bit of you time.” De Guzman chooses a skincare routine because “you are physically putting love into your skin.” She also makes time to do a facemask every week.
De Guzman said the need for self-care is for all. “I feel like just because someone else loves you doesn’t mean you have to stop loving yourself any less.” She also stated that while it’s nice to have someone else love you too, “you shouldn’t be dependent on someone else for loving you.”
Catherine San can be reached at catherine.san@student.shu.edu.
