10 Self-Care Tips To Start Implementing In Your Life
Here is a list of self-care tips you might find very beneficial. Implement these tips into your daily life so you can break free of old habits that no longer serve you. Use these tips to help achieve your highest potential!
1. Journal Daily
Keeping track of your days and your responsibilities will allow you to stay more organized. Journaling also helps us stay more connected to our days, and makes it feel less like days, weeks, months, and years all just blend together. Get as creative as you’d like with your journals, or stick with store bought ones if you’d rather.
2. Practice Honesty/Finding Your Voice
Honesty is an equally familiar and unfamiliar topic to us. We value honesty and expect it from others, however, we often are not honest with ourselves or others. In order to grow as a person, we have to be honest with ourselves in the areas that we need to improve on, and we also have to be honest when it comes to what we desire.
Often, we put aside our own wants and needs to avoid confrontation with others, or maybe because we’re too afraid to speak how we truly feel. When we rob ourselves of our voice and lie about how we feel, patterns and behaviors continue that we don’t like; because we don’t address them, but want them to change, we find ourselves angry with the lack of change despite putting no effort into changing our realities and surroundings.
Keep in mind that there is a difference between honestly expressing our feelings, and being cruel or mean. Honest communication has no space for insults.
3. Try Reducing the Amount of Time Spent on Social Media
Social media is a bittersweet tool that we all use. One one hand, it helps us connect to others, exposes truths that may have otherwise gone unknown, and it allows the freedom of self-expression on a global scale. However, on the other hand, it is a breeding ground for negativity, toxicity, and harm if used in excess or used in the wrong way.
Try to limit your social media intake to two hours or less a day, and start by slowly weaning off of it. The more you stay away from social media, and solely focus on materials and topics that are important to you and help you grow as a person, the less you will desire to spend the time scrolling through apps you used to spend unspeakable hours on.
4. Spend Time in Nature
Nature recharges our bodies in unexplainable ways. It gives us an extra pep in our steps, and certainly helps relieves a bit of weight from our chests. A nice walk in the woods with some friends will help you realign, or maybe take a book with you outside for a little while. Try your best to get out when you can and get some fresh air in your lungs. You won’t realize how much you needed it until you’re out there.
5. Reach Out to Friends and Family
We all have busy lives, and more often than not, we don’t realize how much time has truly passed between our last conversations with some family and friends. When you find yourself with a few extra minutes to spare, reach out to some friends and family members that you haven’t talked with in some time. We may not always be around to physically be together, but those small gestures go a long way and help us all feel just a little bit more connected despite how far apart you may be.
6. Aim to Eat Fruits and Vegetables Every Day
It is not always easy to eat nutritious food, especially if you’re on a tight income. However, whenever you are able to buy fruits and vegetables, please do. Fresh, canned, or frozen, all that matters is that you are at least eating the produce. Try your best to eat them with each meal if you can, but if anything, aim to eat fruits and vegetables at least once a day.
7. Do Something Creative
Creativity nourishes our souls and allows us to express ourselves in endless ways. Draw, write, read, paint, cook, bake, play an instrument, sew something, make a homemade craft, anything that makes you excited and gives you the opportunity to create something of your own for yourself or others to enjoy.
8. Meditation
Meditation exercises our mind’s ability to slow down and connect with our bodies. We’re often too busy thinking about what work needs to get done, or that cringe-worthy mistake we made years ago that we just can’t seem to let go. When our thoughts are constantly elsewhere, we tend to ignore the present, are disconnected from our bodies, and therefore, we miss important signals that our bodies send us saying that we need help.
Meditation allows us time to slow down and notice all the sensations in our bodies. Different resources provide self-care tips on how to gain control of our thoughts and train our brains away from solely focusing on our fears and possible limitations.
9. True Relaxation
Allow yourself adequate time to properly relax. We tend to bite off more than we can chew and take on too many responsibilities and tasks at once. Our culture encourages a “go-go-go” mentality but we all need to know when to pump the breaks and allow ourselves some needed rest. Finding balance is key so you do not fall into the extremes of too much work or too much slacking off.
10. Read More/Listen to More Audiobooks
Reading is so important to keep our minds sharp and allows us to utilize our imaginations. Read novels, comics, manga, graphic novels, fan fiction, articles, or listen to audiobooks if you find it a bit difficult to keep focus. As long as you are reading something daily that doesn’t just consist of social media posts.
