Mindful self-care is a shift in how you embody this moment, and all of your moments.
Mindful Self-Care Scale
A validated and standardized tool for assessing the variety and frequency of self-care strategies
Self-Care: The Foundation of Well-Being
Self-care is defined as the daily process of being aware of and attending to one’s basic physiological and emotional needs. This includes shaping one’s daily routine, relationships, and environment as needed to promote self-care. Self-care is seen as the foundational work required for physical and emotional well-being, and is associated with positive physical health, emotional well-being, and mental health. Research suggests that steady and intentional practice of self-care may prevent the onset of mental health symptoms, job/school burnout, and improve work and school productivity.
A Measure of Mindful Self-Care
The Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS) is intended to help individuals identify areas of strength and weakness in self-care behavior, as well as interventions that serve to improve self-care. The scale addresses ten domains of self-care: nutrition/hydration, exercise, soothing strategies, self-awareness/mindfulness, rest, relationships, physical and medical practices, environmental factors, self-compassion, and spiritual practices. There are also three general items to assess the individual’s general or more global practices of self-care.
Read the publicationsThere are two current versions of the scale: the MSCS-Clinical and the MSCS-2.0. Each is open access and available to download below.
Terms of Use
You are free to use the MSCS in clinical practice or teaching without permission. If you would like to use them in research, or wish to modify them in some way, please email me and and ask for permission. Please keep me updated on all publications and findings, so that my team and I can continue to develop the scales. Thank you!
MSCS 2.0 Permission and Instructions
Please review the permission and instructions document before using the Mindful Self-Care Scale 2.0.
Download Permission and InstructionsMSCS-Clinical
- An 84-item scale
- For use in clinical settings, educational settings, or personal use
- Assesses actionable self-care behaviors
- Helps you, your students, and your patients develop a self-care plan
MSCS-2.0
- A 27-item scale
- Psychometrically robust
- Interethnically validated (2025)
- For use in research
Citation for MSCS-Clinical:
Cook-Cottone, C. P. (2015). Mindfulness and Yoga for Embodied Self-Regulation: A Primer for Mental Health Professionals. New York, NY: Springer Publishing.
Citation for MSCS-2.0:
Cook-Cottone, C. P., Hotchkiss, J. T., Guyker, W., & Wong, M. Y. C. (2025). Development and Interethnic Validation of the Mindful Self-Care Scale, Version 2.0—Eight Mindful Self-Care Factors and Their Relationship to Present Moment-Centeredness. Mindfulness, 16, 3043-3068.
Clinical Publications
Publications about or using the MSCS
The list of publications about or using the Mindful Self-Care Scale is now maintained on Google Scholar so it stays current. View all Mindful Self-Care Scale publications on Google Scholar.
Attunement and Embodiment Theory Papers
- Attunement Model for Eating Disorder Prevention(Cook-Cottone, 2006)
- A Model for Attunement, Mindful Self-Care, and Positive Embodiment (Cook-Cottone, 2015)
- Embodied Self-Regulation and Mindful Self-Care in the Prevention of Eating Disorders (Cook-Cottone, 2015)
- The Attuned Representation of Self: Incorporating Positive Body Image into Eating Disorder Treatment (Cook-Cottone, 2016)
- Cook-Cottone, C. P. (2020). Positive embodiment and the eating disordered client: The body as a resource for recovery. New York, NY: Norton.
- Cook-Cottone, C. P. (2023). The embodied healing workbook: The art and science of befriending your body in trauma recovery. Eau Claire, WI: PESI.
- Cook-Cottone, C. P. (2026). The disordered eating recovery workbook: An embodied approach to heal your relationships with your body, food, and exercise. Eau Claire, WI: PESI.