Self-care ideas and tips ✨

In the blog post I wrote last time, which you can find HERE, I gave the ultimate guide to self-care. Towards the end, I promised that I would write a separate post focusing on self-care ideas and tips. This is that post ☺️

Last time, we discussed what self-care is as well as its benefits. We went into how important it is to take time off for and take care of yourself. In summary, the benefits focused on how you will be able to positively interact with yourself as well as the world at large. It doesn’t help to understand these things when you will not be able to properly execute them. Because this post will focus solely on self-care ideas and tips, the first part of this post will be a list of self-care ideas and the last part will offer tips that will make it easier to practice self-care. 

IDEAS

I am going to give A LOT of ideas so that you have variety when choosing what you want to incorporate into your self-care. I already gave 15 ideas on the previous post. The aim is to do things that nourish your whole being. Remember, different things work for different people. Find YOUR things✨

1. Read a self-help book 
2. Go for a swim 
3. Get Vitamin D by relaxing outside 
4. Take care of your garden 
5. Spend time in nature 
6. Use a foot spa  
7. Get your hair done 
8. Spend time alone 
9. Speak kindly to yourself 
10. Manifest positive things into your life 
11. Avoid things that can ruin your mood
12. Avoid people that can ruin your mood ☕️
13. Don’t say yes to everything 
14. Listen to a playlist of your favourite songs 
15. Do a Bible study  
16. Solo praise and worship 
17. Do research on something interesting 
18. Learn a new skill
19. Learn a new language 
20. Thoroughly cleaning your house/room 
21. Watch funny videos (I recommend Trevor Noah 😌) 
22. Yoga
23. Start playing a sport 
24. Have a healthy sleeping schedule 
25. Enjoy a quiet night in, complete with your favourite meal and wine. 

SELF-CARE TIPS

These ideas alone are not enough because it could get difficult to incorporate them into your life smoothly. That’s the purpose of the tips. They offer ways in which you can ensure that you choose the correct things and are able to add them into your life, even if you are a busy person. 

1. Pairing. This first tip came from a friend of mine, who changed the way I practiced self-care. She said an easy way to ensure that you get your self-care done is to pair things together. That was mind blowing to me 🤯 And it allowed me to fit in a lot more self-care into my day. People have busy days, we can’t negate that. A smart way of going around that is pairing things when you do get time to practice your self-care. For example, you can pair going for a swim and getting vitamin D outside by having a relaxing time in the sun after your swim. You could also pair totally different things like taking care of your garden and manifesting positive things into your life. Each time you work on your garden, you take that as an opportunity to talk kindly to and appreciate yourself. 
2. Do things that actually make you happy. Just because everyone around you’s self-care involves getting their hair and their nails done, doesn’t mean that yours has to include that too. What makes you genuinely happy could be having solo praise and worship sessions and if that is what brings out the joy and nourishes you, that’s what you should be doing. Your self-care doesn’t have to necessarily mirror what other people do or what you see in the media. Self-care is a personal experience, so tailor is specifically to your needs. 
3. Do things that your future self will thank you for. It’s vital to add this point, especially because of the previous one. Yes, your self-care should include things that actually make you happy, but in that mix, there should also be things that your future self will thank you for. For example, you may not be the biggest fan of exercising. Although other people enjoy, it may just feel like a chore to you. However, your future self will thank you if exercising is part of your self-care and you start taking care of your body. For instance, exercising has musculoskeletal benefits. You get stronger muscles and bones. “As you age, you will have less chance of developing serious joint problems and fractures, and your balance (and chances of falling) will be reduced” (verywell health). Exercising also had some mental health benefits such as sharpening memory. According to Huffpost, “regular physical activity boosts memory and ability to learn new things. Getting sweaty increases production of cells in hippocampus responsible for memory and learning”. Therefore, although something like exercising may not be your idea of the perfect self-care activity, your future self will definitely thank you for it. 
4. Add in “self-care” to your to-do list or schedule. Being busy is an excuse that you can easily give in order to not practice self-care. It can be used as a justification for not taking the time to focus on yourself and ensure that you’re doing well. For other people, looking at their schedules creates the wrong impression that they are not going to have time for things as “unimportant” as self-care. Self-care needs to be taken seriously, and adding it on your schedule may highlight its importance to you. It is something that you NEED to do. You can make 20:00 pm or 05:30 am your time for self-care everyday, or have a self-care day on a day like Sunday. Having a reminder to take care of yourself can never be a bad thing, and making time specifically for that is both possible and important. 
5. Remember to nourish your entire being. As discussed in the last post, self-care should nourish your entire self. It should tap into the mental, emotional, physical as well as spiritual aspects that make up who you are. Therefore, the things you choose should be a combination that add up to every part of yourself benefiting. For example, mediating could be helpful for the spirit, journaling = mental, watching funny videos = emotional, and exercising = physical. Take care of your whole self. 

Continue to remind yourself of the importance of self-care by remembering the car analogy. You are a machine that needs to be serviced regularly in order to reach peak performance. I hope these self-care ideas and tips have made it easier for you to start or continue with your self-care journey. Take care 💚