Self-Care Assessment

The Self-Care Assessment Tool can be used to help you identify strategies for self-care.^[1] Reflect on each of the items below to determine how many self-care strategies apply to your life.

To complete the Self-Care Assessment Tool, place the number beside each item that most closely reflects your current lifestyle:

• 1 = It has never occurred to me to do this
• 2 = Never
• 3 = Sometimes
• 4 = Fairly Often
• 5 = Frequently

Physical Self-Care

Eat regularly (e.g. breakfast & lunch)

Eat a well balanced, healthy diet

Exercise at home or go to the gym

Lift weights

Practice martial arts

Get regular medical care for prevention of health problems

Get medical care when needed

Take time off when you’re sick

Get massages to help reduce muscle tension

Do physical activity that is fun for you

Take time to be sexually intimate

Get enough sleep

Wear clothes you like

Take vacations

Take day trips, or mini-vacations

Get away from stressful technology (e.g. pagers, faxes, telephones, e-mail)

Psychological Self-Care

Make time for self-reflection

Go to see a psychotherapist or counsellor for yourself

Keep a journal

Read literature unrelated to work

Do something at which you are a beginner

Take a step to decrease stress in your life (e.g. delegate)

Notice your inner experience – your dreams, thoughts, feelings

Let others know different aspects of you

Engage your intelligence in a new area, cultural activity, sports event, etc.

Be curious

Say no to extra responsibilities sometimes

Spend time outdoors

Emotional Self-Care

Spend time with others whose company you enjoy

Stay in contact with important people in your life

Treat yourself kindly (supportive inner dialogue or self-talk)

Feel proud of yourself

Reread favourite books, re-view favourite movies

Identify comforting activities, objects, people, relationships, places, and seek them out

Allow yourself to cry

Find things that make you laugh

Express your outrage in a constructive way

Play with children

Spiritual Self-Care

Make time for prayer, meditation, reflection

Spend time in nature

Participate in a spiritual gathering, community or group

Be open to inspiration

Cherish your optimism and hope

Be aware of intangible aspects of life

Be open to mystery, not knowing

Identify what is meaningful to you and notice its place in your life

Sing

Express gratitude

Celebrate milestones with rituals that are meaningful to you

Remember and memorialize loved ones who are deceased

Nurture others

Have ‘awesome’ experiences

Contribute to, or participate in, causes you believe in

Read inspirational literature

Listen to inspiring music

Workplace / Professional Self-Care

Take time to eat lunch

Take time to chat with co-workers

Make time to complete tasks

Identify tasks that are exciting and rewarding and promote growth

Set limits with clients and colleagues

Balance your caseload so no one day is “too much”

Arrange your workplace so it is comfortable and comforting

Get regular supervision and consultation

Negotiate for your needs

Have a peer support group