The luxury of self care is so underrated. How can you truly love yourself if you're not practicing daily methods of self care?
What exactly is self care?
Self care is anything you do for yourself in order to make yourself feel better. It's taking care of your needs, your wants and making sure you're good both inside and out. We all know it's one thing to look good on the outside, but what's really important is how you feel on the inside. What goes on inside of us affects us on the outside more than we realize.
Things like acne, ulcers, headaches, hair thinning, fatigue, stress, etc- can be signs of your body needing your attention somewhere. Yes, these things can also be hereditary and bought on by other things, but we can still AID in lowering the affect these things have on us by incorporating self care routines into our daily lives.
How do you practice self care?
With so many ways to practice self care, there is no right or wrong way to do it. We all have different needs and things we do to make ourselves feel better. In this post, I've included my 5 favorite self care routines and how they help me throughout my day, week, month, year, life.
Self care is not only important for YOU, but for those around you too. When you aren't your best, you can't give your best. Taking care of you ensures you'll be in the right frame of mind to care for others. Children, partners, friends, etc. Self care is like the gift that keeps on giving.
It's not just taking long bubble baths and sipping wine on your day off... well, it kinda is-- but there's more to it than that! Self care goes deeper than most realize. My self care routines are more mental than they are physical, because a stimulated, refreshed mind is the ultimate form of self love.
So let's get into my 5 unconventional self care routines!
1- Be kind to yourself.
Sometimes it's easy to get caught up in our feelings and we start to tell ourselves things that don't serve our greater purpose. When you're unhappy or feeling a bit down, don't talk negatively to yourself. You're listening to everything you say and your body will begin to believe it. If you constantly tell yourself "I'm sick" or "I'm depressed", the cells in your body will respond to those thoughts and act accordingly.
When you vibrate on a lower level in a lower frequency, you open yourself up to unwanted energies. Sickness, depression, nausea and other illnesses. Speaking greatness over yourself is one of purest forms of self care. It's free and you can do it anywhere at anytime. The best part though is that you can also do it with others. You can speak greatness over them and lift their moods with your words. Words have always had the power to build or destroy. Make sure you're using yours for building.
Daily words of affirmation:
"I am [.....] enough"
"I'm beautiful and I feel good"
"I can do anything I put my mind to"
"Today will be a good day because I said so!"
"I'm in a good mood and it's going to stay that way"
YOU are in control of your feelings at all times, not the other way around. Tell yourself how YOU want to feel.
For a great book with daily affirmations check out Rev Run: Words of wisdom. I've read this book 3 or 4 times already and highly recommend it.
2- Take time for yourself.
My personal favorite- taking time out for yourself. Everyday you should have a time where you pause for a second and do a mental check. Ask yourself "how am I feeling in this moment?" Then take a moment to assess those feelings and proceed accordingly. Are you happy? Stressed? Mad? Uneasy? Not sure what you're feeling? Whatever the mood is, figure it out and try to understand yourself.
Once you begin to understand yourself a bit more, you'll be more in control of how you let things affect you. Shift your mood if you're feeling a bit blah.... Tell yourself "I feel good" and stand in it! Again, your words have the power to shift energies. Believe it!
3- Treat yourself to something.
Have you had a long day? A stressful work week? Or are you just in the mood to be treated to something nice? Either way- you deserve nice things! There is no crime in treating yourself to luxury. Buy that bag, those shoes, that hat, book that trip, or whatever else it is that you want to treat yourself to. It's critical that we don't wait for someone else to do these things for us. Waiting on someone to do something for you is not a form of self care.
Go out and get what you want. The only person responsible for making YOU feel better, is YOU!
4- Give yourself a break.
It's ok to stop sometimes. Stop overthinking, stop over helping, stop over loving, stop over compensating. We get so caught up in doing for others that we don't get into the habit of doing for ourselves as much as we should.
Pause. Take a breather. Gather your thoughts and recompose yourself. Get some mental clarity. When your mind is clear, your thoughts are more fluid and manageable. Soak in a tub, go for a walk (or drive), do some meditation, lay in a dark room for 5 minutes-- whatever you do, make sure that YOU are better as a result. Again, we can't give our best if we aren't our best.
5- Stop feeling guilty about the past.
We all know things happen for a reason. Many times those reasons are beyond our comprehension. But what we can't do is stay stuck on those things. We have to move past them in order to heal from them. Tainted love, broken hearts, death, disappointment and a whole host of other things can limit us from moving forward. We tend to stay stuck in the past haunted by our own thoughts about the "what ifs" and "how comes."
But there comes a time when we have to let it all go. The broken friendships, family drama, death, heartbreak, memories, setbacks, etc. It's so easy to become what we've been through by holding onto things that no longer do us any good, but we have to stop feeling guilty about things we can't control. Guilt is one of the heaviest things we can carry in life and the longer we carry it, the more it weighs us down. Don't let the past take a toll on your future. I know it's hard, but you have to let it go! For your own sanity, health and growth.
Closing note:
Although baths and wine may not be the only form of self care one can practice, they sure do feel good! I love baths and they are definitely apart of my daily self care routine. I do a lot of thinking in the bathtub. Most of my best thoughts have come while soaking in a tub, lol! I can take a bath at any time of the day or night. 2pm or 2am it doesn't matter to me. A bath (to me) is rejuvenating and gives me a fresh start to the day. In a weird way, it feels like I'm restarting my day and getting another chance to do something different.
They say cleanliness is next to Godliness- and I can truly attest to that. Being clean makes me want to be a better person. Weird, I know.... but that's just how I feel.
Get your own bathtub tray here!
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Be sure you get some self care in today!
XOXO
Ashawna Lane