Self-care is when one takes care of oneself. A practice of improving and maintaining one’s mental and emotional health. Many people think that caring for self is selfish, but imagine yourself as a cup that is filled with water and you keep pouring from your cup without trying to refill your cup with water, at some point, you will end up with no water, meaning you will drain yourself. Taking care of yourself is better than draining yourself.
Here are a few basic and simple self-care tips that you can start practicing
- Make sleep a part of your self-care routine
Proper sleep schedule can help better functioning of the brain and gives proper rest to the body. It also helps the hormones to function properly. Sleep can have huge effects on how you feel both emotionally and physically. Not getting enough sleep can even cause major health issues. We often do not get sleep because we are worried or stressed about many things in our life. Making cautious efforts to reduce stress especially before bedtime can help in effective stress-free sleep. Make your bedroom a comfortable place to sleep, have proper normal to pleasant temperature set in your bedroom that will help you sleep better. Do not use your bed for doing anything but sleeping.
- Take care of the food you consume
Eating a balanced and healthy diet can do wonders. There are many tips of what foods to avoid before bedtime and what foods to consume to enhance your sleep available on the internet. Do have look at those tips and choose what suits you the most.
- Do you find yourself saying ‘yes’ when you want to say ‘no’?
What we many a times do is say yes even if we don’t want to say the same and then we go out of our ways to help or do something for the person who you have said yes. Say ‘no’ if you are tired, stressed or anxious or exhausted or not in a space to help anyone in any way. Rather invest that time in doing something that rejuvenates and uplifts you. It’s perfectly fine and okay, it doesn’t make you selfish.
- Take a trip
Taking a trip where you can just take care of yourself is definitely a great idea, if you constantly feel that you are not getting chance to take care of yourself. Plan a trip where you can pamper yourself emotionally as well as physically. Do something that rejuvenates you, makes you happy. Basically anything that isn’t a part of your daily schedule and doing things that make you take care of yourself and make you feel happy.
- Get in touch with nature
Getting out in natural and airy environment can help reduce stress, stiffness in body, helps to reconnect with yourself and calm down. Getting outside can also help you sleep better if you are going for an activity or going for a walk.
- Pets
If you are someone who loves pets, this can be the best idea for you!! Many researches prove that having or being around pets can help in reducing stress, anxiety, depression, lower blood pressure.
- Get organized, take better care of yourself
Many times it so happens that we are so packed with many things and deadlines that we always keep running behind those. Many times our work place or our homes are not organized and we keep searching and messing things every now and then which could make a person get into panic state if he/she is trying to find something while being in hurry or wanting something on immediate basis. Having a planner and/or organizer can help you better plan and manage your each day better. Organizing and/or decluttering space can also make one feel happy as the place looks clean and organized, one can also find things easily.
- Cook at home
We are often packed with busy schedule of running here and there, which may not give time to cook a healthy meal that promotes a healthy lifestyle that may give rise to many other related problems. It can also help you to maintain healthy lifestyle of your family members and also can give you time to explore cooking skills and spending time with yourself.
- Read a Book
Reading can make you travel many places and give you many topics to know about. Reading is a good habit you can inculcate and develop. I have read a quote that says “Leaders are Readers”. You might be amazed at the difference it can make when you slow down instead of always looking at your phone. Not only can it help improve your mood, but it can also help you to stay more present and mindful.
- Schedule a self-care time, and stick to that time just for yourself
It can be hard at times to take out extra time just for ourselves. But once you have decided on what to do in your time with yourself so that you can take care of yourself, try to stick to that time to do those things. Find ways and means in your daily life for example: get up a bit early to do your self-care routine before you start your day, or finish certain things before you go to bed.
- Make time to exercise
It releases happy hormones and also helps to move your body. Devoting at least 30 minutes of time during the day can give you great results, not only physically but also releases endorphins, that enhances your mood.
- Be Mindful
Mindfulness is nothing but being in the present moment. Getting in touch with the smell you can smell or things you can feel or just being aware of what you are feeling and what you are doing at this given time can help your brain to focus only in the present, giving it time to calm itself down.
- Journaling
Ever thought of journaling!! Penning your thoughts during the day can help you declutter your mind. You could write anything that comes to your mind of everything that has happened during the day that bothered you. Writing things and feelings down can many times help you to solve problems and also gain insight into your triggers to many things and situations.
- Meditate
Meditation has many benefits in improving your health, mind, body and soul. It can calm you down, help easing your sleeping process, reduce stress, in some cases reduce headaches too. Find time to meditate, it can really help you.
