Most of us know that we should have a self-care routine. But what exactly is self-care? And how can you make a habit of sticking with it?
According to Raphailia Michael, “self-care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health.” These activities should be things you love to do, not ones you feel you should be doing. What do you truly love? Reading? Yoga? Meditation? Walking? The key is to pick things you love so you will stick with your routine and lead a beautifully balanced life. I personally need a mix of physical and spiritual activity, so my routine includes both:
- Daily: five minutes of yoga in the morning, 30 minutes of rage journal and meditation at night, 30 minutes of reading at night
- Three times a week: 30 minutes at 9round
- Monthly: one hour acupuncture, two hours phone conversation with spiritual mentor
How much time are you willing to dedicate to your self-care routine? Planning and scheduling times and activities will help you stick with it. Start small: if you have never done this before, I suggest picking small blocks of time – no more than 10 minutes in the morning and evening. For example, if walking and reading are two things you adore, your self-care routine would look like this:
10 minutes walk in the morning, 10 minutes reading at night
Once you are comfortable with the time, you can increase it and/or add other activities. Remember, the goal here is to help your body recharge and relax, so keep it simple until you are ready for more. Here are just a few activities that you might consider as part of your self-care routine:
- take a bath create a vision board bullet journal yoga meditate go for a walk
- do a face mask look at old photos dance around your house cook watch a movie
- organize something knit, crochet, cross-stitch read garden take an online class
- blog get acupuncture cuddle your fur babies listen to podcasts play a board game
I am SO EXCITED to see what your self-care routine will look like. Please comment on my Facebook page or below.
Namaste,
Michelle