Self Care Plan For The “Black Community”

“Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” — Peter Drucker, Management Consultant and Author

There are multiple ways we can slice and label our lives. For the purpose of this post the following categories have been chosen Spiritual/Emotional, Economic, Artistic, Physical, Educational, and Social.
A Self Care Plan in the workplace is the same as at home. It will challenge your need for (or acceptance of) things that are not helping you live your life’s purpose like:
– The need to be right and in control all the time

-The need to carry the weight of those who consciously don’t want to carry their own
– The need to feel secure and safe around things you already know vs doing a good job while exploring the new frontier of your own career.

Recognize your purpose

– Understand your purpose

-Sustain the path of your purpose

-Stay connected to others who compliment your purpose and,
– Recognize the healthy environments and relationships in which your spirit can heal and flourish.

Emotional Self Care –honesty and transparency is respected as authentic, yet emotions with active faith and hope engaged can ease your journey through life. Thoughts can get crowded around emotional pain and a lack of hope, making it almost impossible to logically think your way out of every situation. Self-care baby steps and actions of a spiritual and emotional nature should always stem from honesty.

-Praying after a tough moment
– Listening to a favorite song loudly
– Receiving a kind word or guidance from someone that helps you learn how to best determine or address your spiritual and emotional self-care needs
– Finding a space in which to be honest and in which to heal

Economic Self Care is a term that tends to be referenced solely to address finances however, for the purpose of this Self Care Program, economics holistically defines the management of your time, money and energy. 
Economic Need Examples:
– Having someone to advise you how to best prioritize and face your economic self-care needs

Keeping a calendar of obligations (financial, time, social commitments)

-Knowing what’s in your bank account

– Balancing how you spend your time in
the course of a day
– Knowing the difference in friends who take your energy without giving good energy and those who give and receive good energy.

Artistic self-care is an act that fuels creative growth, healing, healthy expression and change. Creating or sharing artistic expression is truly a divine gift to yourself and others. Whether it is culinary arts, painting, dance, poetry, singing, drawing, designing clothes, styling hair or producing film, art and creativity stimulate ideas and help us express what we can’t always verbalize. Watching and enjoying without talking is one of the many gifts artistic self-care can bring.
Artistic Need Examples:

– Be around artistically expressive people

-Seeing something beautiful and experiencing it in a way you never have before
– Sing out loud
– Draw or color without judgement

Physical Self-Care
Your body houses more than food, muscles and bones. Your body also houses the emotional pain and worry you feel on a day-to-day basis. Working out, dancing, stretching, walking or any form of healthy movement is not just about working the muscles and organs in your body, it is also about proactively addressing the connection of how you feel emotionally to how you feel physically. Your physical health also matters because it’s connected to what helps you reach your dreams and fulfill your purpose. 
Physical Need Examples:
-Have fun while you move your body
– Learn how to heal an ailment or injury

-Take a dance lesson

-Find someone to advise and help you learn how to prioritize your physical self- care needs

Educational self-care is about finding what you want to learn and using that knowledge to help you achieve your purpose in life. Gifts of knowledge on how to reach your dreams and goals in life are all around you. Determining what you want to accomplish in life helps to determine what you need to learn. Being open to learning can help you move along the journey to reaching your dreams. Baby steps in this area directly relate to learning through text, people, programs, institutions and life lessons on how to reach your dreams.
Educational Need Examples:
– Knowing your educational options
– Having access to a way to pay for educational needs
– Having someone to advise you who is non-critical and helps you learn how to best determine or address your educational self-care needs
– Learning ways to learn with less struggle and/or less shame

Social self-care focuses on interacting with others to assist us as we work to reach our dreams and fulfill our purpose. Whether your socializing involves volunteering to help those less fortunate, networking to promote your dreams and initiatives or spending time with those who share your passion for a topic, social self-care is a critical category. It not only helps you reach your goals, it also offers the gift of giving when you share your time with others.
Social Need Examples:
– Being in environments that compliment my personal, professional or entrepreneurial goals
– Countering a tough day or week with people and environments that allow you to relax and be yourself
– Having someone advise you who helps you learn how to best determine or address your social self-care needs
– Being around positive people without feeling pressured

*Self-care within your family is not only your responsibility, but your CONTRIBUTION to the stability of the familial support unit. You are only able to do your part if you are sound physically, spiritually, and emotionally. It’s an ongoing commitment, and one of the greatest ways you can show your love.

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Adapted from the book: Self Care Matters A Revolutionary’s Approach by Anana Johari Harris Parris (Connect with her)