December 29, 2020
I am a firm believer that self-care is not a luxury in life, but truly a necessity for our emotional and spiritual well-being. Self-care has become more popular in this decade because we are seeing so much more depression, fatigue, adrenal burnout and overwhelm. There is beginning to be an understanding that our mental health plays a huge role in our physical health.
We live in a busy fast-paced world where there is never enough time in the day. Many people, especially those who are in service provider positions, are also people-pleasers and this means they constantly filling other people’s cups and yet often forgetting to tender their own. Eventually, this can have dire consequences on our health and well-being.
Self-care tends to be lacking when we also struggle with having self-worth and self-love. However, it is important to begin somewhere and therefore creating a self-care practice is a good start to feeling more self-love and self-worth. Self-care is different for everyone but what you eat, how you sleep, how you move and what you do are all factors in how we choose to look after ourselves.
5 Tips for Creating a Self-Care Practice
Make Time
It is important to make time every day for something that makes you feel good and lights you up. You can even start small with 5 mins of relaxed and focused breathing or reading your book before bed, buying that delicious healthy smoothie, calling a friend or even just hanging out with your pet for a snuggle.
Get Outside and Move Everyday
Fresh air and exercise are good for the emotional heart as well as our physical heart. Taking deep breaths of fresh air helps to rejuvenate our spirit, brings in more oxygen helping our energy and immune system as well as cleansing our lungs. Exercise, of any sort, has been shown to support all of our body systems but also to increase our focus, our energy and our ability to cope with stress.
Learn to say NO
No is actually a complete sentence and doesn’t need an explanation. If you are a yes person this may be difficult at first. You can always use other tactics to buy yourself more time to reply. If someone asks you to do something, perhaps ask if you can check the dates and get back to them before you say yes. I also find that responding later gives you time to really evaluate if you want to help and are able to instead of feeling like you should.
Plan a Whole Day Just for Yourself
If pampering feels good then perhaps book a massage or a beauty treatment. Lunch out with a friend or a hike in the forest might feel good to you. A full day in bed can be self-care if that is what your heart desires and your energy body needs. You should book the day in your planner and make this time non-negotiable. Once you get to see how amazing these days feel you won’t want to miss them and perhaps you will even do more of them.
Learn to Journal
Writing downs our thoughts, emotions and ideas is a great way to help us process the stress and anxiety of everyday life. We have the opportunity to step back from the weight of our issues and find ways to let go and focus on our gratitude. Our mind can not focus on the negative if we are focused on all that is positive. Journaling at the end of the day is also a great way to leave any challenges of the day behind and set ourselves up for a peaceful night’s sleep.
Start small but be consistent and you will start to feel the difference on all levels
