Remember: “It's not selfish to love yourself, take care of yourself, and make your happiness a priority. It's necessary.”― Mandy Hale
1. Learn to process feelings.
Master the skill of processing your emotions in a healthy way.
2. Learn to say NO.
Believe in it, practice it, and use it to avoid overwhelm and overextending yourself that leads to burnout and exhaustion.
3. Proper sleep.
Good sleep is imperative for physical and mental health and wellbeing. It provides the body with the rest it needs to keep you well and helps you perform at your best in all that you have to do on a daily basis.
4. Eat clean.
Real whole food nourishes the body and brain, keeps your weight at a healthy level, and provides you with tons of energy.
5. Solitude.
Spend time alone to clear your mind, gather your thoughts and just slow down, even if it’s just a few moments.
6. Practice mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a practice that makes you focus on the present moment and really pay attention to what is going on, including smells, sounds, feelings, actions, and everything else.
This practice offers numerous benefits, but one of the best ones is that it keeps you in the present moment and prevents you from worrying about the future and constant thoughts of the past.
7. Get a treatment at the salon
A blow-out, manicure, pedicure, anything that makes you feel good and renewed
8. Create a morning routine
With meditation, prayer, visualizations, an uplifting podcast, a morning walk in nature or anything that works for you. Morning rituals help get you centered for the day ahead.
9. Drink a hot cup of herbal tea.
This is great in the evening to calm your mind and body and get ready for sleep
10. Turn off all noise
Including phone, social media alerts, and just sit in silence. You can do this easy self-care practice during any time of the day.
11. Cook.
Cooking helps keep you grounded and in touch with what you are eating.
I find the act of cutting fruits and vegetables to be soothing and relaxing.
12. Break free from negative and/or unhealthy people.
People who do not serve a positive purpose in your life only drag you down.
13. Get up slowly without an alarm.
Get up a little early so you have time to slowly awake, and have some quiet time for yourself.
14. Visit a local botanical garden to sit in and relax.
If you love plants, flowers and trees surround yourself with them as much as possible. Nature is soothing, calming, and restorative.
15. Practice deep breathing several times each day.
16. Meditate.
This practice only takes minutes and can be done anywhere. There are many smartphone apps with guided meditations to help you stop and take care of yourself throughout your day. It helps keep you centered, focus, and relaxed.
17. Do nothing.
Yes, take a few moments each day and do nothing but relax
18. Plan periods of time without plans.
Yes, it is okay to simply have blocks of time during your weekly schedule to do nothing and have nothing planned.
19. Be spontaneous.
The above tip allows you time to be spontaneous, this way you can just do whatever you want, take a drive, read, take a nap, go to lunch with a friend, or visit a place you always wanted to visit.
20. Exercise.
All exercise releases feel-good chemicals in the brain, reduces stress, detoxifies the body and greatly improves mood.
Cardio, aerobics, weight lifting, and even a simple walk around the block are all helpful.
21. Take a scenic drive
22. Practice yoga.
There is a yoga pose for just about every possible purpose, and yoga has more than sixty benefits for mind, body, and spirit. Its effects stay with you long after each session has passed.
23. Recharge with a spa day
24. Be okay with disappointment. Life is full of disappointments, but when we get caught up in the emotion of them it can drag us down, both in spirit and our quality of life.
25. Be your own best friend.
Think about what this means for you. Think of the keywords, love, honor, support, respect, care for, meet needs, be there for, and meet desires.
26. Go on a retreat to rest, refuel and regroup your mind and refresh your spirit
27. Create calming surroundings.
Look around your home, your car, and office, are these areas calming or do they create feelings of chaos or tension?
Clutter is chaotic, and when you are in a cluttered space, you will feel cluttered on the inside.
28. Consider your friends and relationships.
Do they fulfill you, support your wellbeing, and inspire you to be your best, or do they drag you down?
29. Consider your routine.
Is it chaotic and overwhelming? If yes, make changes as needed with a focus on your health and wellbeing.
30. Make a list of your greatest qualities and read it often.
31. Play and have fun as children do.
Childlike play feeds the spirit and promotes emotional health.
32. Review your schedule.
Take a long hard honest look at your schedule, is it overfilled? Are you overly burdened? Make every possible effort to eliminate things that cause overwhelm.
You may think everything on the schedule is important, but considering that your wellness supersedes everything else, you will surely find things that can be eliminated, or find help.
33. Just one thing.
Do one thing that makes you happy every single day. Smell a flower, listen to your favorite song, hug yourself, think of those good things that feed your soul.
34. Unplug.
Unplug all electronics for at least half an hour each day. That means your phone, laptop, tablet, social media, email alerts, all of it!
35. Evaluate your social media updates.
Do you really need to be bothered with constant updates? This type of information overload is really harmful, it promotes stress and prevents your mind from being calm and centered.
36. Listen to your body.
Get into the practice of listening to your body. So often, we run around doing a million things without noticing hunger, thirst, or exhaustion.
37. Dance.
Dancing is great exercise and the music helps release feel-good hormones in the brain. You can dance while cleaning, or simply in your living room or office whenever you want.
38. Stretch.
One of the easiest and quickest way to destress and recharge is to stretch. Do it every day.
39. Plan your meals.
Plan healthy meals for the week, if possible cook everything on Sunday and have it ready to serve, this way you will not get caught in the spiral of “too busy to eat healthy,” where you wind up eating junk and fast food.
40. Practice positive self-talk.
Use positive affirmations to remind yourself of how great you are and how much you deserve self-nurture to promote self-care actions.
41. Spend time in nature.
Nature is soothing, refreshing and re-energizes the mind, and spirit.
42. Get some sun.
Spend a few moments in the sun each day, don’t forget the sunscreen.
43. Inhale wellness.
Essential oils are therapeutic and help create a certain mood, for example, lavender for calm, or peppermint to boost energy, motivation, and mood.
44. Laugh.
There are many benefits of laughter for mind, body, and spirit. Take time to laugh every day, seek opportunities like watching funny shows or movies.
45. Quick nap.
A nap that lasts between 10 to 20 minutes completely rejuvenates your mind and energizes your body so you can tackle anything that comes your way.
46. Take up a hobby or sport you always wanted to do.
Commit to it and make it a part of your self-care ritual.
47. Candlelit dinner for one.
Take yourself out for dinner and celebrate your own company.
48. Journal.
Journaling can be healing, as it allows you to process emotions and reflect.
49. Receive love freely.
Love is the ultimate healer, no matter how bad things get, love can pull you out. Seek it, receive it and give it, and you have the best self-care medicine there is.
Make a commitment to yourself now, that you’ll stop putting yourself on the back burner and start making you a priority on your to-do list.
The smartest investment you can make is in your own self.
Understand the big picture, without self-care, you end up running on empty, and you cannot care for or give to others from an empty cup.
