This article was first published on 1 April 2022.
Want to take better care of your mental and physical well-being? Consider taking some self-care workshops. These can include yoga classes, stress management workshops, and meditation sessions. Durations can range from a single day to multiple visits, depending on how often you can commit. There are also workshops you can do in a group, whether that's your circle of friends or your workmates.
What are the forms of self-care?
Did you know that there are various forms of self-care? There's physical self-care, which involves taking care of your body through exercise, enough sleep, and a balanced diet. There's also mental self-care, which is more commonly associated with therapy and its various forms as well as activities like journalling. Emotional self-care helps you be in tune with your emotions and how to manage them, especially in stressful situations. There's social self-care that focuses on our personal relationships and spiritual self-care, which is practised through prayer, religion, and meditation.
Now that you know which forms of self-care these workshops can tap into, discover the options you have in Singapore.
Treat your body to a break from sitting at your desk and enjoy a good flow of movement through a yoga class. Head over to Ojas Yoga studio for an hour of sun salutations, downward dog positions, and gentle stretching. It offers Hatha, Ashtanga yoga, Vinyasa yoga, Power yoga, and Restorative yoga classes that help improve your strength and flexibility.
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: SGD15-840
(Photo from: ojasyog.com)
You can also try sound healing at Space 2B. It combines meditation with different levels of sound frequencies to "‘re-tune’ the body back to its wholeness". Each vibration lulls your mind and body into a relaxed state, which can help quiet any feelings of anxiety, stress, or worries. The sound therapist can use a variety of instruments for the session. This includes crystal bowls, gongs, tingshas, drums, tuning forks, singing bowls, bells, rattles, shakers, rain stick, voice–toning and mantras.
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: SGD50-1,800
(Photo from: @space2bsg)
Tap into your other senses with an aromatherapy session at Core Collective. They use aromatic plant extracts in the form of pure essential oils and hydrosols to help improve your physical, psychological, and spiritual health.
The Core Collective's aromatherapy services are exclusively available at their Anson and Dempsey Roads branches.
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: Prices available upon request
Embrace your inner artist with the art workshops at Boulevart. The art jamming self-care workshop gives you free rein over the canvas. You can try different mediums such as watercolour, calligraphy and acrylic. They also tailor the experience to your level of familiarity with the art form, so beginners and amateur artists can explore their interests through the sessions.
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: SGD66-86
(Photo from: shop.boulevart.com.sg)
Want to get into journalling but don't know where to start? Writing Foreword's creative writing and journalling workshops are a good place to start. Writing Foreword is the social enterprise arm of The Tapestry Project SG, a non-profit that advocates for mental health education, empowerment, and community.
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: SGD20, with subsidised rates for persons in recovery; Duration: 1.5 hours
If you consider skincare to be self-care — which it is, in our book — then this self-care workshop is for you. Local natural beauty brand Soul Good Project helps you create your own personal care items like natural deodorant, perfume balm and body mist. The two-hour workshop also walks you through the basic understanding of essential oils and scent notes, so there's a little bit of aromatherapy involved too!
You can find Soul Good Project on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: SGD70
(Photo from: klook.com)
For folks who have a hard time managing their energy levels, consider this expert-moderated self-care workshop. InPsychful tailors the workshop to parents, couples, or groups, and explains the various skills that can help them practise self-care in their daily lives. They also promise that participants will leave the session with a concrete action plan on how to break any bad habits and what they need to do moving forward.
Price range: Prices available upon request; Duration: One day.
If you're an animal lover, you'd want to consider booking an animal-assisted therapy session with Pawsibility. You can cuddle up with their Therapy Dog as you chat with a therapist or opt for more interactive sessions where you'll participate in activities with your Therapy Dog as your companion. Having a fur friend with you can turn therapy into something fun and engaging, as well as pose some stress- and anxiety-reducing benefits.
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: Prices available upon request
(Photo from: @pawsibility_sg)
For folks who want to improve how they handle their time and stress levels, the British Council Singapore offers time and stress management self-care workshops. The session imparts valuable tips on how to organise your daily schedules to maintain a work-life balance. They also give advice on how to manage stressful situations.
You can find them on Facebook.
Price range: SGD668.75; Duration: 7 hours
If you want to give your mind a chance to disconnect from any distractions, book a floatation therapy session at the Palm Ave Float Club. You'll soak in an enclosed tub filled with Epsom salt-infused bathwater. The tub completely blocks out light and sounds from the outdoors, allowing you to immerse yourself in total silence.
You can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Price range: SGD89-3,000; Duration: 60 minutes
(Photo from: @palmavefloatclub)
If you want to start from the basics, this self-care workshop will walk you through the importance of self-care, how to improve one’s emotional health, build resilience and change your relationship with your inner critic. Each session is limited to 10 people so opening up if needed won't be too hard.
Price range: Prices available upon request
Reiki is a type of energy healing that's believed to improve the flow of energy in and around your body. The improved energy flow results in relaxation, pain relief, speed healing, and other types of recovery. At its core, Reiki helps you find balance and stay centred despite the stresses you may be going through in life.
Price range: SGD480 Duration: Two days (weekend), three days (weekday)
(Photo from: @reikiglowsingapore)
Getting enough sleep is one way to practise self-care. Here are some products that can help you drift off to dreamland faster.
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at [email protected].
.png)
