What Is Self Care?

By Katy Osuna of Copper & Heat

Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the point of view of Best Served. In furtherance of bringing more voices to the table, we are committed to sharing varied thinking throughout the industry.

The term “self-care” makes some people cringe. It may conjure images of facemasks and bath bombs or Goop-like wellness. But building a system of care for yourself is an essential part of staying healthy and many folks that work in the mental health space are coming up with terms of their own. Hassel Aviles from Not 9 to 5 calls it a “personal healthcare system.” The CHOW (Culinary Hospitality Outreach Wellness) team calls it “acts of self-service.” 

Whatever you want to call it, it’s about taking the time and space to take care of your health — emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual — and figuring out what that means for you.

To start building yourself a system of self-care, let’s start with the very basics according to Hassel Aviles from Not 9 to 5. 

Diet

The pace and stress of restaurant work hasn’t been conducive to eating in healthy ways (who hasn’t scarfed down a family meal over a trash can in 5 minutes?) So in order to take care of ourselves better, we need to make sure we’re fueling our body in a healthy way. 

Start by asking yourself some questions like this: When was the last time I ate? How does it make my body feel? Am I eating consistently? What kinds of foods make my body feel good or bad?

Sleep

With clopens and doubles or triples, working multiple jobs and, let’s be real, the after-work bar visits, a lot of us aren’t great at getting enough sleep. It’s important that we take some time to really consider how sleep affects the various aspects of our health. 

Start by asking yourself some questions like this: How does sleep affect the way that I feel — physically, mentally, or otherwise? How am I sleeping? Am I sleeping enough? 

Movement

This can be working out or exercising, going for walks or hikes, or whatever works for you. Think about different ways that you can move your body (outside of work) that helps you feel better. 

Start by asking yourself some questions like this: What kind of movement makes my body feel good? What kind of movement am I going to do this week? 

Meditation (or some way to calm your nervous system)

This can be meditation, reflection, prayer, whatever gets you to take some time to breathe, slow your heart rate, and give your mind and body a chance to recover. Start with just 5 minutes a day and work up from there.

Start by asking yourself some questions like this: How am I calming my system down? Have I done anything to calm my nervous system today? Have I taken time to breathe? What kinds of activities can I incorporate into my day to calm me down? 

Something to spark joy

Finding activities that spark joy help jack up chemicals in your brain like serotonin oxytocin. These positive spikes help keep you balanced. What sparks joy is completely up to you to define. For some people it’s art or a creative outlet, for others it’s playing with their puppy or baby.

Start by asking yourself some questions like this: What kinds of things make me feel joyful? Have I done anything this week to spark joy? 

Build on this foundation

These five categories are just the basics, a starting point to build yourself a system. For Hassel, when she lists out all the things that she does as part of her personal healthcare system, it’s somewhere between 25 to 30 things.

“The traditional healthcare system doesn’t really show up for me very well,” says Hassel, “So I had to build my own healthcare system in my own little world and it really is the only reason I’m alive today. And why I can say that certain days I’m thriving, even during a pandemic. Of course there are other days that I’m just barely surviving.” 

“But I can say that when I lean on these parts of my own internal healthcare system it can actually make it so that, even in a pandemic, I have days when I’m thriving.”

A big part of building a self-care system is taking that time to get in touch with yourself and ask some big questions. A big part of that is setting boundaries at work (which you can read more about in this post) so that you can take that time outside of work for yourself. What works and what doesn’t is constantly changing depending on what’s happening in your life, so building the habit of reflection is really essential. Start with these basics as a foundation and go from there. 

Katy Osuna is the host and producer of the James Beard award-winning Copper & Heat podcast. She’s been a cook for 9 years and worked in all sorts of places from the 3-starred Michelin restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos CA, to the sustainable meat company Belcampo before starting Copper & Heat. The interview and content for this article are from an IG Live with Hassel Aviles from Not 9 to 5 on the Copper & Heat Instagram. Copper & Heat explores the unspoken rules and traditions of restaurants through the stories of the people that work in them.