Self care can seem like such a fantasy if you’re a mom. “Who has time for that?!” is something I’ll hear my clients say. Yet, the way I teach self care it’s exactly what you must make time for.

Self care isn’t fluff. It’s the most important thing.

Self care means you are taking care of yourself.

And just like they say on airplanes to put on your oxygen mask first before you can help anyone else, the same is true in your life—in order to give, you have to have a full cup.

Enter: the six types of self care.

6 Types Of Self Care For Moms

Thinking about self care in six buckets will help you differentiate (and tune into) your needs.

From this list, you can more easily understand what type of self care needs the most attention, so you can make sure you’re filling up your own cup.

1. Mental

Mental self care is mindset management.

Your mindset creates how you feel, and together (your mind and body) create how you show up in the world. So, the thoughts you’re thinking are the root cause of everything, in so far as you’re experiencing it.

This means that more than changing your circumstances, changing your thoughts will change your life.

Ways To Practice:

  • Thought work
  • Journaling
  • Self Coaching
  • Getting coached

2. Emotional

Emotional self care is taking care of your emotional wellbeing.

On default, your brain will try to avoid emotional pain (example: you shop when you feel stressed because shopping feels good).

Allowing yourself to experience negative emotion, instead of avoiding it, makes the emotion not as bad.

You can learn to process all your feelings and allow them as if you’d chosen them.

Your feelings are always an indicator of what’s going on internally, not externally. It takes incredible self discipline to attribute your feelings to your mind, instead of your circumstances. This is what happens when you do the inner work.

Ways To Practice:

  • Emotional intelligence
  • Processing feelings
  • Allowing negative emotion
  • Choosing feelings on purpose

3. Physical

Physical self care is taking care of your body.

Not to look better (although that’s okay, if you desire that), but to honor your body. To tune into it. To listen to it, instead of trying to control it.

To drink when it needs water.
To eat when it needs food.
To stop eating and drinking when it’s full of fuel.
To move when it’s stiff.
To sleep when it needs rest.

Most of us (myself included!) are not in the habit of doing this. It’s taken me years to be more in tune with my body, and I still have a ways to go. This is an art that you can tap into on your personal growth journey that is well worth it.

Ways To Practice:

  • Sleep
  • Food, drinks
  • Movement
  • Stretching
  • Exercise

4. Social

Social self care is taking care of your relationships.

This is all about connection, family, community, friends, and all the other people in your life.

When you spend time with people who fill you up, you’ll have more energy and spirit within you. You’ll feel more alive.

Ways To Practice:

  • Connecting with your spouse
  • Talking on the phone with a girlfriend
  • Going to an event in your city
  • Getting around other people

5. Spiritual

Spiritual self care is taking care of your soul.

It’s playing, being in flow, enjoying yourself so much you lose track of time.

If you’re anything like the old-me, this area of self care is one that you often forget about in your daily to-do list that keeps you busy.

This form of self care is about getting out of the productive, masculine energy and getting into your feminine, fun, flow energy. It’s the best work I’ve ever done, as it’s made the biggest difference in my life.

Ways To Practice:

  • Laughter
  • Play
  • Fun
  • Joy

6. Practical

Practical self care is taking care of your life.

This is about being productive, getting organized, taking care of your life, your family, your finances, and your home.

It’s all about decluttering, budgeting, and anything else process-oriented that you can do to take care of your life.

I love this form of self care as I’m naturally so good at it, and it’s made a huge difference in the quality of my surroundings.

Ways To Practice:

  • Organizing
  • Budgeting
  • Decluttering

A Final Note

Understanding the different ways to think about self care (in these six buckets listed above) will help you prioritize self care in a more effective way.

Instead of thinking of it so broadly, you’ll be able to tap into your needs in a more specific way.

This is what I’ve done and it’s had such a big impact on my life. Instead of thinking I need to do “more self care” I check in with myself and see what type of self care I’m depleted in, and from there, I can find a way to fulfill my needs. Said differently, self care becomes much more doable when you think about it in these six buckets. And that’s what it’s all about—actually making space to do it. Xo