It is important that we ensure we always make time for self care. Self care is about more the bubble baths and face masks. Self care includes things such as getting plenty of sleep, eating nutritional foods, reducing your stress, setting boundaries, and much more.
To help you to become the best version of yourself, I’ve put together this list of top tips for ensuring that you always make time for self care.
Start with sleep
Make getting a good night’s sleep part of your self care ritual. Not getting enough sleep can have a huge knock on effect on how you feel and how you regulate yourself emotionally. To make sure you get a good amount of beauty sleep, ensure you watch what you’re eating and drinking in the evenings, remove distractions from your bedroom, and invest in some good quality curtains that keep the early morning sunshine at bay.
Avoid drinking caffeine or having too many sugary foods in the evening, especially before bed. Similarly, it’s probably best not to drink a pint of water just before bed, as this is likely to result in you getting up to use the bathroom and disrupting your sleep. Create the ideal bedroom environment that promotes REM sleep by removing distractions such as your TV or your phone.
Focus on moving your body
Self care is about taking care of your body, but not about creating more stress when you feel you’ve ‘failed’ to complete a self care task, such as exercise. Moving your body is one of the main things that matters when it comes to ensuring you make time for self care in the form of exercise. If you don’t have time to start working out at the gym, or you don’t know how to create your own workout routine from home, it doesn’t matter. Anyone can fit in a little bit of exercise each day, even if it’s in the form of doing normal tasks.
You could, for example, do the school run on foot rather than taking the car. Or maybe you walk the dog for an extra fifteen minutes. If you still find you don’t have time for these activities, you might want to treat yourself to a massage. Massages can help relieve muscle tension and soothe your joints. You could opt for a deep tissue massage or a Swedish Massage in Puyallup, WA, or wherever you are.
Set yourself nutritional goals
We all know we’re supposed to eat our 5 A Day, but how often do you actually manage to achieve that? Part of self care is ensuring that you’re taking good care of your body by eating properly, and that means that you should be eating food that nourishes your body and aids digestion.
Looking after your gut is a serious aspect of self care that’s often overlooked. The type of food that you eat can either positively or negatively affect the bacterial balance that helps to keep everything ticking along smoothly. Be mindful of the type of food you’re eating and think about setting goals to positively improve your diet, without reprimanding yourself for eating the ‘wrong’ type of food.
Eating the right type of foods can not only help our bodies thrive on the inside, but it can also have brilliant effects on our hair, skin, and nails. Not only that, but eating properly can even help prevent short-term memory loss and inflammation. Try including more fatty fish, green leafy vegetables, and fruits rich in antioxidants such as blueberries.
Learn how to say no.
When it comes to self care, you need to learn how to set boundaries. Standing up for yourself, staying true to yourself, and looking after your mental state are vital aspects of self care that we should all strive to achieve.
Slotting self care into your day can be as simple as making a decision that’s right for you, even if it means that someone else will be upset or challenged by it. The problem is that so many of us feel obligated to say yes when someone asks for our time and energy, however when you’re already overworked and stressed, this can easily lead to burnout, irritability, and even anxiety.
Once you learn to say no, you’ll have more self confidence and more belief in yourself. This in turn will lead you to spend more time considering your self care acts and what you can do to improve your life.
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