Self care ideas to improve your overall wellbeing which not only includes your physical self care but also taking care of your emotional, mental and spiritual health.
Self care is the most ignored activity in our daily life but in fact, that is the only way we can actually maintain our overall wellbeing and peace of mind. It not only makes us happy from inside but accelerates us to do better in our day to day life.
In, today’s post we will cover:
- What is Self Care?
- How to Create a self care routine that works for you
- Different self care activities to include in your busy days
a. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Self Care
WHAT IS SELF CARE?
Self care is all about nourishing yourself not only just physically but also emotionally, mentally and spiritually too!
If you’re just taking care of your physical body but not putting much effort into your mental or emotional health, you will observe that you will have; difficulty handling everyday life situations, making tough life decisions, reduced focus in life, unsaid dissatisfaction, excessive mental fog, etc.
When you start taking care of yourself overall, your overall quality of life increases.
Now, you will say; my goodness, I can’t do that much everyday; I have a lot on my plate already.
I get it. we all have. In today’s world, everyone is busy but it’s also about where we are too busy.
I see people in my life crying about so many things and asking about advice and yet when I give them, they say they don’t have time.
And then I ask how much do you spend time on social media; most of them would answer at least an hour or two!
Like I mean, if you can spend 2 hrs on social media, I’m sure you can give yourself at least 15 minutes to improve your mental health.
Using social media has become so much second nature that we don’t even consider that we’re overspending time there.
It has become natural and feels like an important part of our day.
Maybe just maybe sneakily you’re using one out of the two hrs during your work time, but the other one hr?
You might use it when you wake up, in your washroom, before you go to work, before you sleep and in between your day.
Now, you will say, I’m using social media for breaks and to relax my mind.
Yeah I know, you will have all the excuses to not leave it because your mind is so used to receiving the dopamine it gives.
You will have to start thinking, what is more important for you; the instant dopamine or the prolonged serotonin?
HOW TO CREATE A SELF CARE ROUTINE THAT WORKS FOR YOUR SCHEDULE
STEP 1: Identify your Needs
- Pay attention to your physical, mental & emotional needs to understand what self care activities you really need to improve your life
- Think about the activities/hobbies that make you feel energized and refreshed.
- Think realistically and ask yourself about what kind of activities you can include in your life in a way that works for you.
STEP 2: Make time for self care
Curate a self care routine of 10-15 minutes in your day which can include meditation & journaling or a quick workout
You can also designate a day for self care activities which can include hair care, body care, elaborative workout, etc.
P.s. Don’t forget to set healthy boundaries.
As much as giving time to your loved ones & friends is important, giving time to oneself is even more important.
Tell everyone, when not to disturb you.
Related Reads:
How to Heal your Feminine Energy
How to Overcome Self-Doubt in 5 ways
TYPES OF SELF CARE TO INCLUDE IN YOUR LIFE
A. EMOTIONAL, MENTAL & SPIRITUAL SELF CARE
I have listed about 6 self care ideas to help you improve your emotional, mental and spiritual health.
You don’t need to include them all at once.
Include the ones that most fit your routine.
I would recommend starting with one or two only because you don’t wanna bombard yourself with too much.
This will result in giving up early.
I have given you ideas on how to put them into your routine, so read along!
1. One minute gratitude prayer
Do a one minute gratitude prayer right after you wake up.
This is something I’ve recently started doing and is doing wonders to me.
My day starts so well and I have such a positive mindset.
When you wake up, look upwards as if you’re looking at the sky and talk to the universe in your heart
“Thank You universe for such a beautiful life. Today is going to be amazing. I’m so abundant. you’ve given me so much in my life. I’m healthy, wealthy and fulfilled. I have all the resources and opportunities in life to achieve success, I’m so blessed”
This is a prayer that I made for myself, sharing today with you, if you would like to use as an example
2. Digital Detox & Meditation
I know, it’s toughhhh, but you gotta start somewhere to break the habit.
Force yourself to keep your phone on airplane mode, put it on charge and don’t use it after you wake up and go to the washroom without it.
Trust me, you will save at least 15-30 minutes and when you do, spend those extra 10-15 minutes for deep breathing and meditation after you take your bath.
Your mind doesn’t need a dopamine boost right when you wake up but rather it needs some relaxation.
Keeping your mind calm and not rushing up in the morning prepares you for a lighter day ahead and you’re able to deal with everyday issues more easily.
If you try meditation right after you wake up, you may fall back to sleep again, so only do it after you freshen up but still do what works for you.
3. Listen to high vibe songs
I know sometimes it’s very difficult to take out the time to dance or even exercise which is a great way to raise your vibrations.
If you can do that, great! but on those busy days; you still want to vibrate higher.
So what to do you may ask.
I say, listen to this amazing high vibe playlist that I’ve curated (I’m Upgrading) while cooking your food or on your way to work.
This will not only lift up your mood but this playlist that I’ve made will also help you manifest what you want.
It has bomb songs
I listen to it while I’m in the kitchen, it not only lifts me up but also incorporates those good vibes into my food.
4. Journaling
Journaling has been my best friend since childhood.
Well, when I was little, my grandfather used to bring diaries from his office and used to give them to my mom.
I had a fascination to write something or the other on those blank pages.
Eventually, when I grew older, I realized all along during my childhood; I was journaling.
I used to write about how my day went, what happened, how I felt.
It was like my favourite thing to do after I came home from school and I enjoyed it so much.
Even though I’m older now, my journaling has become wiser lol.
I mean I ask myself even deeper questions, now that I understand the true benefits of it.
Journaling is one of the major tools that has helped me heal a lot of my trauma, limiting beliefs and release blockages.
You can also checkout my recent blog post on 23 transformational shadow work prompts to start your journaling journey
Plus, I have quite a few helpful journals and workbooks, you can check them out here!
You can start with asking yourself one question everyday or if you can’t do it everyday; do on the days at least when you’re feeling heavy or have mind fog.
5. Reading
If you’re someone who doesn’t like reading books, I get you!
I was in that phase once.
I always wanted to start reading books because I knew that it gives us so much knowledge and helps us widen our perception around so many topics.
I heard somewhere once, that if you want to start a reading habit, initiate with the topics you love the most, about which you can talk about or listen to for hours.
If you can’t find such topics, you can start with some interesting novels, that’s exactly how I started.
We human beings love listening to stories and a little spice doesn’t hurt.
Choose the kind of stories you love to listen to and find relevant novels.
Once you develop a habit, then you can one by one start reading books which can help you grow and develop your skills or knowledge.
P.S. I used to read books on my way to work when I used to travel by bus. So, if you travel similarly, avoid using phone and read a book instead!
6. Sound healing
Sound not only makes you vibrate higher but also heals you internally.
Recently, I read Destiny of Souls and there a client in their hypnotherapy session shared that sound and colour are very sacred in the spirit world.
They make us souls feel alive and this things has stayed with me since then
I mean, we’re eventually spirit beings in this human body and to heal our pain & trauma, sound can be very beneficial.
There are innumerable sound frequencies on youtube. You can include sound healing during meditation itself.
I’ve already talked about the mental, spiritual and emotional self care, let’s also see how you can improve your physical health
B. PHYSICAL SELF CARE
These self care ideas mentioned here are the most crucial ones and generally we tend to ignore but including physical self care can actually have major effects on mental health too.
When you look good, feel good in your body; you mental health naturally becomes better.
1. Hydrate! Hydrate! Hydrate!
This is a well known fact which I don’t need to preach about but I will but only a little lol.
Drinking enough water/healthy liquids will not only quench your thirst but also keep your skin and lips supple and your gut healthier.
Not just that, if you’ve a lot of muscle pain or joint pain, drinking enough water can help alleviate the pain as dehydration pulls fluid out of your tissues which kind of leads to body aches.
Read the article here: https://www.ptcoa.com/tips-to-avoid-dehydration-pain-relief#:~:text=Proper hydration can help reduce daily intake of clean water.
You can download a water tracker app and even buy one of those bottles which have markers on them. Just like this one.
Keep it on your work desk. It will keep on reminding you when to drink water next.
2. Skin care
Of course how can we forget that? As much as physical movement is necessary, a little bit of skincare can go a long way.
Your skincare doesn’t need to be an elaborative 5 or 7 step routine but it can include only 2-3 things that make your skin healthy.
Do a quick skin care before you go to work. It will not only improve your skin health but also makes you look active and fresh.
3. Physical Movement
Whether you love exercising/dancing; choose your jam.
Though if you want a fit and healthy body; exercise & nutrition go hand in hand.
Pushing yourself out of the bed to go to a gym is not an easy task because our brain loves to be comfortable so it tries to avoid the difficult task of getting up.
But the only difficult task here is just getting up, the first step! Once you take that first step, it’s very easy.
Whenever you feel lazy or do not feel like getting up, always remind yourself the reason you need to take that first step.
When your mind gets a reason, it makes a decision based on that logic and then it pushes your body to move forward.
Plus, on the days if you can’t exercise, you can choose to dance.
You do not need to be a good dancer, just move your body freely the way it wants and all the movements will flow naturally.
When you dance freely, it lets your creative feminine energy flow, bringing it to a balance.
Do a quick 5 minute warm up/dance on busy days and switch to elaborate workouts on off days.
4. Nutrition
Understanding your nutritional needs by consulting a dietician or a doctor can help you curate a well balanced diet for your health goals.
Even if you can’t do that, there are tons of helpful resources and apps available in the market these days to help you not only curate healthy meal plans but also provide you with amazing healthy recipes according to your nutritional needs and goals.
I mostly eat a plant based diet, so I love Pick up Limes website plus they’ve an app to that you can subscribe too: Check out their website here
But you can explore others in the market.
You can also meal prep in advance on your off days to skip outside meals and to maintain your nutrition.
Also, what I do is, whenever I have left over food and I don’t feel like eating it for 3rd or 4th time, I freeze my meals and eat it 2-3 weeks later on days when I can’t cook food.
For Indian cooking, we use a lot of onion and tomato gravy in numerous dishes, I also freeze them in ice trays to use them for cooking quick meals.
You can try freezing pre-made mixes for similar food items for not only saving time but also helps you eat healthy home made food.
5. Herbal teas to boost immunity
Coming from an Indian household, teas have been a major part of our culture and therefore, I’m a big tea drinker rather than a coffee drinker.
Especially herbal teas are so powerful not just to boost immune system but also to soothe and relax
These are my favs:
Vahdam (Vedic Kadha is my favorite flavour out of all)
Twinings (Chamomile is my fav from this assortment)
You can switch coffee for herbal tea at your work place to give you some relaxation within hectic days.
Plus they’re a great stress buster. You definitely need that at your work place.
C. SOCIAL SELF CARE
We can’t ignore social self care ideas as these just go unnoticed often; so I didn’t want to miss that.
1. Spending time with family
We often take our loved ones for granted because we know they’re always there for us when we need help or in our times of turmoil.
But that doesn’t mean we ignore the importance of spending happy time with them
They also deserve our love and attention.
It not only makes your bond even stronger but it also is a sign of respect that you care for them.
Spend some time with them at dinner time instead of using your phone or give them a call at least once or twice a week if you live away from them.
2. Socialising Intentionally
As much as family time is important, it is also necessary that we go out and about and meet our friends.
Even if you don’t have friends for any reason, you can start socialising in various social clubs and events and build new friendships there.
If you won’t make an effort now, you will realise later in life that you did not make any happy memories with friends and just spent all your life working and working.
Trust me, loneliness in later stages of life can kill a person from inside.
Having friendships is so important for better mental health too.
Rather than repenting later on, take time at least once a month for a meet out.
Self care is not really about being selfish at all you see, it’s just about being well overall so that you’ve the capability to show up fully for your life.
And let me tell you, the more I have done this in my life, the easier my everyday life becomes.
When my mind and body is clear and healthy, I’m able to finish up my daily tasks not only with ease but also before time.
So, it’s really about the perception of how you see self care.
When you will understand the importance and the true difference it makes in your life, your whole life will change.
So in today’s post we learnt about what REAL self care is, how we can create a successful self care routine even in our busy days and the different types of self care that we can introduce in our everyday life.
So, what are you implementing first to start your self care? Let me know in the comments below👇🏻
