Self-care is defined as, “any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.” It’s very rare that people make time to take care of themselves. Once most of the world turned into the busy, time-sensitive environment that it is today, we stopped scheduling time to take care of ourselves. Here are 10 ways you can practice self-love and self-care this week.
1. Schedule Time to Take Care of Yourself
Put down in your planner or whatever calendar you use, that you will be taking time to take care of yourself. Unless something really important comes up, don’t cancel the time that you scheduled for yourself.
2. Keep a Daily Gratitude Journal
Taking time to think about only positive things for a couple of minutes a day, will change your mindset drastically. You could even write down a few things that you like about yourself every day.
3. Take a Bubble Bath
It has been proven that hot baths elevate your mood by a 2002 University of Wolverhampton study. Instead of taking a fast shower, try taking a relaxing bath and read a book, or watch a YouTube video.
4. Read a Self-Help Book
Reading is always a great way to expand your knowledge, but self-help books are perfect when you have intentions of self-care. Find one that’s perfect for your situation, whether that be stress, anxiety, spirituality, and more! There’s a self-help book for just about everything.
5. Get Off of Social Media
We all know the many reasons we should take social media breaks, and I won’t repeat all of the reasons you have heard many times before. The biggest reason I tell you to take a break from social media is because it’s a huge time waster. When you’re spending time looking at people you don’t know, what they’re wearing, who they’re dating, and whatever else, you could be focusing on you and spending time on yourself. So, put your phone in a drawer, and don’t get it out until you absolutely must use it.
6. Take Yourself to Your Favorite Food Place and Enjoy at Home!
Eating out by ourselves can be scary for a lot of us, so run into your favorite coffee or bagel shop, get an order to go, and enjoy at home! You can watch one of your favorite feel-good movies, or some funny YouTube videos while you enjoy your food!
7. Pray
You know those emotional, word vomiting prayers? Do one of those. Just let it all out and give it to God. Remove the filter between your mind and your mouth, and just say everything that comes to mind. God loves us and is happy with any prayer we say, and our prayers don’t have to be fancy. Just let out all of your emotions.
8. Do a Personal Growth Exercise
Learn more about yourself so you can learn how to better care for yourself. I like this one because it has 25 questions, but it won’t take you very long to answer them.
9. Go on a Walk
Everyone who knows me knows that I struggle to do intense cardio, partially because I have asthma, and partially because it hurts my joints. Did you know that going on a nice, relaxing walk will boost your endorphins and will help you to burn calories, just like running? Walking is so underrated because it is assumed that you must be running to burn calories when in reality, you can burn a similar amount of calories if you walk the same distance. Here is an article that gives some insight on this idea.
10. Have a Spa Day at Home
Do a face mask, paint your nails, put some deep conditioner on your hair, you know what I mean. Listen to some relaxing music while you’re at it too! Just take the night to treat yourself right.
You are so important, so treat yourself, and spend some time caring for yourself. Remove any guilt that you may have when you take time making sure that you are in a good mindset. Let me know which ideas you tried and how they have improved your headspace!
