Self Care is taking personal responsibility for one’s own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. It is making yourself a priority, and it is good for your mind, body and soul. Self-care is not selfish and should be your lifestyle. Here are sixty-two self-care ideas for you to add to your daily routine to take care of you.
- Support system. Having a support system provides you the opportunity to ask for help, as you need it.
- Learn to process feelings. Master the skill of processing your emotions in a healthy way.
- Learn to say no! Believe in it, practice it, and use it to avoid overwhelm and over extending yourself that leads to burnout and resentment.
- Create, believe in, and enforce your own boundaries. Your boundaries protect you from harm, just as the borders are there to protect countries.
- Proper sleep. Good sleep is imperative for physical and mental health and wellbeing. It provides the body with the rest it needs to keep you well, and helps you perform at your best in all that you have to do on a daily basis.
- Eat a healthy diet. Good food nourishes the body and brain, keeps your weight at a healthy level, and provides you with ample energy.
- Solitude – Spend time alone to clear your mind, gather your thoughts and just slow down, even if it’s just a few moments.
- Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is a practice that makes you focus on the present moment and really pay attention to what is going on, including smells, sounds, feelings, actions, and everything else. This practice offers numerous benefits, with one of the best ones being that it keeps you in the present moment and prevents senseless worry about the future or nagging thoughts of the past.
- Get a treatment at the salon, a blow-out, manicure, pedicure, anything that makes you feel good and renewed
- Hot aromatherapy bath
- Do something that is fun, senseless and makes you relax.
- Create a morning routine with mediation, prayer, visualizations, an uplifting podcast, a session on the treadmill or anything that works for you. Morning rituals help get you centered for the day ahead.
- Take a few moments and do a facial massage, with botanical oils or your favorite cream
- Read a book
- Spend time with friends
- Drink a hot cup of herbal tea. This is great in the evening to calm your mind and body and get them ready for sleep
- Turn of all noise, including phone, social media alerts, and just sit in silence. You can do this easy self-care practice during any one of your days.
- Cook. Cooking helps keep you grounded and in touch with what you are eating. Many people find the act of cutting vegetables to be soothing and an inherent part of being human.
- Practice gratitude. Gratitude is one of those things that eludes many, as we get caught up in the spiral of daily stress and responsibilities and begin to resent all that we have to do. But look at the flip side, what if you had no job? Being grateful for all we have, even with the frustrations involved helps keep you centered and more calm.
- Break free from negative and/or unhealthy people. People who do not serve a positive purpose in your life only drag you down.
- Get up slowly without a blaring alarm. Get up a little early so you have time to slowly awake, and have some quite time for yourself.
- Create a beautiful garden for yourself to sit in and relax. If you love plants, flowers and trees surround yourself with them as much as possible. Nature is soothing, calming, and restorative.
- Practice deep breathing several times each day.
- Meditate. This practice only takes minutes, and can be done anywhere. There are many smartphone apps with guided meditations to help you stop and take care of yourself throughout your day. It helps keep you centered, focus, and relaxed.
- Do nothing. Yes, take a few moments each day and do nothing but space out.
- Plan periods of time without plans. Yes, it is okay to simply have blocks of time during your weekly schedule to do nothing and have nothing planned.
- Be spontaneous. The above tip allows you time to be spontaneous, this way you can just do whatever you want, take a drive, read, take a nap, go to lunch with a friend, or just watch TV.
- Exercise. All exercise releases feel good chemicals in the brain, reduces stress, detoxifies the body and greatly improves mood. Cardio, aerobics, weight lifting, and even a simple walk around the block are all helpful.
- Take a scenic drive
- Practice yoga. There is a yoga pose for just about every possible purpose, and yoga has more than sixty benefits for mind, body, and spirit. Its effects stay with you long after each session has passed.
- Recharge with a spa day
- Practice positivity. Positive thinking is miraculously healing, and optimists live longer and handle stress much better than pessimists do. Always look for the silver linings in any situation, especially the bad ones.
- Be okay with disappointment. Life is full of disappointments, but when we get caught up in the emotion of them it can drag us down, both in spirit and our quality of life. It’s okay to be disappointed with yourself, it’s okay if others are disappointed in you, you are the best you can be at all times.
- Be your own best friend. You can certainly figure out what that means for you. Think of the key words, love, honor, support, respect, care for, meet needs, be there for, and meet desires.
- Go on a retreat to rest, refuel and regroup your mind and refresh your spirit
- Create calming surroundings. Look around your home, your car, and office, are these areas calming or do they create feelings of chaos or tension? Clutter is chaotic, and when you are in a cluttered space, you will feel cluttered on the inside.
- Consider your friends and relationships. Do they fulfill you, support your wellbeing, and inspire you to be your best, or do they drag you down?
- Consider your routine. Is it chaotic and does it make you crazy? If yes, make changes as needed with a focus on your wellbeing.
- Make a list of your greatest qualities and read it often.
- Stare at the clouds. Find some grass, lay down, and just watch the clouds float in the sky.
- Play like children do. Childlike play feeds the spirit, and promotes emotional health.
- Scrutinize your schedule. Take a long hard honest look at your schedule, is it overfilled? Are overly burdened? Make every possible effort to eliminate things that cause overwhelm. You may think everything on the schedule is important, but considering that your wellness supersedes everything else, you will surely find things that can be eliminated, or find help.
- Consider nagging annoyances. We all have little things that annoy us and nag at us, and over time this can cause mental and emotional burdens. So fix those annoyances and get rid of them. For example, there is likely something at your house that you have been wanting to fix for a while, but have been putting it off, just fix it so you can stop thinking about it. Perhaps there is someone you have been meaning to call for a while, make the call, and get it done.
- Just one thing. Do one thing that makes you happy every single day. Smell a flower, listen to your favorite song, hug yourself, think of those good things that feed your soul.
- Unplug. Unplug all electronics for at least half an hour each day. That means your phone, laptop, tablet, social media, email alerts, landlines, all of it!
- Evaluate your social media updates. Do you really need to be bothered with constant updates from 100 plus people? This type of information overload is really harmful, it promotes stress and prevents your mind from being calm and centered.
- Listen to your body. Get into the practice of listening to your body. So often, we run around doing a million things without noticing hunger, thirst, or exhaustion.
- Dance. Dancing is great exercise and the music helps release feel good hormones in the brain. You don’t need to go to a club, you can dance while cleaning, or simply in your living room or office whenever you want.
- Stretch. One of the easiest and quickest way to destress and recharge is to stretch. Do it every day.
- Plan your meals. Plan healthy meals for the week, if possible cook everything on Sunday and have it ready to serve, this way you will not get caught in the spiral of “too busy to eat healthy,” where you wind up eating junk from unhealthy fast food places.
- Practice positive self-talk. Use positive affirmations to remind yourself of how great you are and how much you deserve self-nurture to promote self-care actions.
- Spend time in nature. Nature is soothing, refreshing and re-energizes the mind, and spirit.
- Splurge. Buy yourself something self-indulgent, just because.
- Get some sun. Spend a few moments in the sun each day, don’t forget the sunscreen.
- Inhale wellness. Essential oils used in aromatherapy are therapeutic and help create a certain mood, for example lavender for calm, or peppermint to boost energy, motivation, and mood. Aromatherapy can be done anywhere with a small bottle of essential oils on hand you can simply add a few drops to a tissue and place it in your purse.
- Laugh. There are many benefits of laughter for mind, body, and spirit. Take time to laugh every day, seek opportunities like watching funny videos on YouTube or comedy channels on cable.
- Quick nap. A nap that lasts between 10 to 20 minutes completely rejuvenates your mind and energizes your body so you can tackle anything that comes your way.
- Take up a hobby or sport you always wanted to do. Commit to it and make it a part of your self-care ritual.
- Candlelit dinner for one. Yes, why not take yourself out for a delectable gourmet dinner and celebrate your own company.
- Journal. Many people find journaling to be healing, as it allows you vent frustrations, process emotions and reflect.
- Receive love freely. Love is the ultimate healer, no matter how bad things get, love can pull you out. Seek it, receive it and give it, and you have the best self-care medicine there is.
