Self-Care Tips for Wellness

—Lucille Ball

Spring resolutions?

It’s four months into 2024, and only about 13% of people expected that they’d still be sticking with their New Year’s resolutions by this point in the year. Does that sound like you? At the beginning of the year, most Americans said they wanted to improve themselves with more fitness, financial wellbeing, positive mental health, and healthy nutrition. That sounds great! So…why did we stop?

Pro tip from Tracey Orman, our unofficial cheerleader and Health and Wellness Administrator at Businessolver: it’s never too late to start over on your goals. Perhaps it’s time we start a new trend—spring resolutions.

Maslow’s Hierarchy…of self-care

We spoke to several Businessolver employees, called Solvers, this week about self-care and noticed a connection to the famous psychology model, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs pyramid. The pyramid’s rule, according to Maslow, is it’s essential to progress through the levels from most basic needs to the highest needs to achieve self-actualization.

In communications with colleagues, it only made sense to categorize their self-care tips and routines into these five levels. Level one, the most basic needs, sound like the core elements in Tracey’s Wellness program, called DASH: diet, activity, sleep, and hydration. Level two includes the mental component of self-care, having healthy boundaries between work and life, practicing meditation, or for some, a connection to faith. These are the basic needs for taking care of yourself. Check out the end of the article to see Solver-curated self-care tips.

Where it starts to get tricky

If you’re including yourself in the 13% of people still sticking with their New Year’s resolutions, chances are you are well on your way to level three of the pyramid: healthy relationships. Several Solvers mentioned that their relationships with family, friends, and fellow Solvers were essential for self-care.

Studies show that 85% of people struggle with low self-esteem—supposedly, an essential step to beat level four of Maslow’s pyramid. Sometimes this shows up as imposter syndrome, or self-doubt. One Solver we spoke with said that when those feelings arise for them, they go back to their support system. It’s critical to have someone you can be real with, to validate and check those feelings.

Five is alive

Self-actualization, the desire to be the best you can be, is level five. In 1986, a cute robot nicknamed Johnny Five in the movie Short Circuit rebels against his creators who only wish to use him for destruction. When he meets up with the compassionate human Stephanie, she shows the robot what it means to be alive, hence the phrase “number five is alive.” Of course, robots cannot achieve self-actualization, but kind of like Pinocchio, the movie teaches the importance of making the right decisions, no matter how difficult.

Life is a series of choices. Deciding to eat salad versus chicken nuggets for lunch, or choosing between doing hot Pilates or watching Netflix, can sometimes be easier than changing the way you think about yourself, or how you perceive others.

Don’t stop believing

The main point of Maslow’s pyramid is once you get the basics, you can move on to the hard stuff. Self-care is a journey. Don’t stop believing you can make the right choices with every step you take (see what we did there? 😉 Sorry, that’s it for ‘80s references).

Solver-curated self-care tips

Take a page out of our employee’s self-care books. Here are some ways our Solvers practice self-care.

Find regular daily activities that you enjoy like walking (with dogs, or without), Pilates, yoga, cardio, etc.
Stay active, even on vacation.
“You can’t do today’s workout tomorrow.”
Get as much fresh air as you can.
Meal prep and cook at home as often as possible (it’s better for you, and the environment).
Clean and chop ingredients at once so it cuts down on cook time during the week.
Hydrate, drink things besides caffeine.
Take short breaks to move as often as your body tells you to.
Set reminders to take breaks if you aren’t doing it yourself.
Learn what keeps you focused.
Keep work separate from home as much as possible.
Make time to unwind from work with something fun.
Meditate regularly, even if only for 10 minutes a day.
Connect with family.
Spend time with friends, friends remind us to take care of ourselves.
Get involved in the community—when you help others, you set aside what you think is a big deal in your life. Showing up for people with love is its own reward.
Lean on co-workers to bounce ideas off, cheer you up if you’re down, or have a coffee chat with.
When you take time to learn about others, you might just learn something about yourself along the way.
Learn when to say “no” and when to say “yes” to commitments, both in and out of the workplace.
Notice your feelings and take action—stress is a reaction to not taking care of yourself.
Lack of self-confidence could be imposter syndrome.
Self-care is not a luxury.
Be your authentic self, and you’ll feel full of love.

No matter what “level” you’re on, make a positive choice, and as Tracey always says, “win today!”

Interested in workplace wellness topics? You may want to tune into the Workplace Wellness episode of the Benefits Pulse Vodcast with Tracey.