My Favorite Self Care Tips

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We have talked about what self-care is, the basics of self-care, overcoming barriers, and engaging in Self-care in our first post. What your goals are, how to stay accountable, finding your accountability, and recognizing your success in part 2. Brainstorming ideas for a routine, and inserting self-care into your daily routine in Part 3 and re-evaluating your routine, and making changes in Part 4. If you haven’t read them I have attached them below. Here are some of my favorite self-care tips that I incorporated into my routine. Some are harder than others, but it is a work in progress.

How to Build a Self-Care Routine: Part 1

How to Build a Self-Care Routine: Part 2

How to Build a Self-Care Routine: Part 3

How to Build a Self-Care Routine: Part 4

The first one is sleep

I set an alarm on my phone to go to sleep mode at 9:30pm ever night. I don’t always go to bed at that time, but I try too. Getting a good night sleep helps rejuvenate and energize your body for the next day. You wake up feeling rested and ready to start your day. Plus I get up at 5:30 am every day, so it helps to go to bed a little earlier the night before. A seep tracker is a great tool for keeping track of how much you sleep. Check out these sleep trackers for inspiration.

Get up earlier

Yeah, I know, easier said than done, right?, but I gotta tell you, it helps. I wake up at 5:30 am every day, it was so hard to pull myself out of bed at first. I would always, and most of the times I still do, wake up 4-5 minutes before my alarm would go off. Why couldn’t I just sleep until my alarm went off? Now I lay in bed for those precious couple of minutes, just relaxing before I start my day. I get up early to get my morning walk in before my teenage children get up. It gives me about an hour to just enjoy the morning, just me and nature, and my thoughts. I’m hoping to start jogging soon, but it’s baby steps for me. Arthritis in the knee does that to you, but I know if I work at it, I’ll get there.

Drink a lot Water

I try to drink anywhere from 64 ounces to 96 ounces of water a day. Sometimes I get stuck in rut and only drink 32 ounces, but man can you tell the difference, especially in this heat we are having where I live. Keeping your body hydrated helps you keep going after you have been outside all day sweating in the hot sun. Make sure you start early though, and keep drinking water throughout the day. I have noticed a difference from the days I drink little to no water and the days I drink a lot of water. My body feels so much more energized and able to keep going. Now if you’re like me and can’t stand the taste of plain water, try using an infuser water bottle. You can add fruit and herbs to your bottle to give your water a sweeter taste.

Meditation

I know a lot of people have reservations about meditating, but I can tell you from experience, it helps my nerves, tension, and stress. The hard part is finding the time to meditate. The best part is you can meditate for a long or as little as you want. Sit somewhere where you won’t be disturbed, with your back straight, feet flat on the floor. If sitting on the floor cross your legs, and relax your body with your hands resting on your knees. Meditation is concentrating on your breathing and letting everything else slip away. The tension, the stress, etc.… If you end up thinking about your day or how your meeting is going to go, realize it, acknowledge it and come back to your breathing. It helps to count your inhales and exhales. Inhale -1, exhale – 2, Inhale – 3, exhale – 4, and so on.

Read

Reading helps you build knowledge and comprehension.  It also helps reduce stress and depression symptoms. I read because I enjoy it. Learning new things or just getting sucked into a good fantasy book. I usually read a chapter a night, but I have also had nights where the books are so good, it will be three in the morning and I’ll tell myself I can read one more chapter. Surprisingly I have yet to be late for work. (*Knock on wood*).

The trouble with reading is finding something you enjoy. I read mostly Paranormal Romance, YA Fiction, and Non-Fiction Self- Help books. Those are the types of books I’m interested in and having a library card is a great way to get books or find others that may interest you. Check out your local library for a new release or join our book club! You never know what you will find.

Prayer

Prayer is a huge self-care element for me. Just being able to write in my prayer journal or talk to God when I need to is an amazing feeling. It takes a lot of the stress and anxiety away, knowing I can talk to Him and He will listen. I pray several times but only write in my prayer journal once a day. It helps to write out my troubles and look at them from another angle. See how I can work through them or ask for help from the Lord above. Sometimes it’s hard because you want the answers right now. Not everything is going to go as you planned, it might just turn out better than you expected. It might be something you thought you needed but realized, it wasn’t what you needed at all. The Lord gives you what you need, not what you want.

Hygiene

This should be an important self-care element for everyone. Staying clean and healthy is important. That means showering, brushing your teeth at least twice a day, cleaning your ears out, and others that are important to you. After my walk in the morning, I wash my face, take a shower, floss, brush and use mouth wash, put my eye drops in, and put deodorant on after I get dressed. I clean my ears out once a week, normally on Mondays. It’s easier for me to remember at the beginning of the week. Then I wash my face, brush my teeth and put my eye drops in before I go to bed at night. You want to stay clean and fresh for your day ahead.

Eat Healthy Meals

This is one of the hardest things for me because I absolutely love chocolate and cookies, but it helps to plan your meals for the week or month and stick to them. Try not to skip out on breakfast; it’s a meal that helps give you energy to get through your day, along with water. If you are fasting, that’s great, try not to do your fasting in the morning. I was doing fasting for a while, but I did mine after breakfast only because I would feel exhausted throughout the day if I missed breakfast. My body would feel sluggish and slow. We have provided several meal planning guides and bullet Journal meal planning on our Pinterest page.

Affirmations

Affirmations help you challenge yourself and overcome negative thoughts.  I write down an affirmation a day and try to stick to that affirmation throughout the day. In the morning after my meditation, I also say affirmations to myself. I will say affirmations such as, I will be focused today, I will be productive today, and I will be happy today. Keeping an affirmation in my head or write it down on something so I don’t forget it and can look back on it throughout the day. It is very difficult to keep with it when stress and anxiety come into play, but it will help to have a reminder to your goal affirmation for the day. You could order these blank cards and write your affirmations on them to carry around with you.

These are my favorite Self-care elements. If you have any other self-care routines that you would like to share, please post them below. I would love to share thoughts and ideas with everyone.

And as always…