Implementing self-care and to your daily life
The most basic explanation of self-care is about taking care of yourself. The term has been widely used and is mostly associated as a “woman thing” or taking bubble bathes. That is the furthest from the truth, in my honest opinion. Self care habits are implemented throughout the day and may present themselves in many different ways. Let’s go into some aspects of practicing self care in your everyday routine.
Getting Sleep
Sleep is by far the most important aspects of self care. It is like the first domino that has an effect on everything else. Establishing a healthy bedtime routine can be the first step to getting better sleep. Some great first steps can be eliminating distractions 30 minutes before bedtime, yoga or meditation before bedtime, leaving your phone out of the bedroom, or even as simple as committing to an actual bedtime. Let me be honest, none of these are easy and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t stick to it everyday. Its a process!
Eating healthy foods
Increasing your consumption of dark green leafy vegetables or swapping out processed foods for natural foods are easier to substitute out. Drinking water also counts towards healthy eating, sugary drinks are the calories we typically don’t account for in our meals and we often in-take more than our days worth of sugar intake before lunch just in lattes and breakfast. Start tracking your caloric intake and see for yourself where you stand.
Getting sunlight
Sunlight helps to boost serotonin in the body which can improve our mood, give energy, and help us to stay calm throughout the day.The weather is sunny right now so get outside and soak up the good natural vitamin D. Protect your self from the sun with sunblock.
Taking time off
Schedule and plan to take time off, yes we are still in a whole pandemic and made not want to travel. Taking time off to do absolutely nothing are the best plans sometimes! This is especially the case if you have use or lose leave. Local staycations in a neighboring city can also be interesting, you’ll be amazed the cool things you discover were right under your nose while you were traveling the world.
Exercise
I know, this is on just about every list! But continue reading, little walk breaks count as exercise. Perhaps they are just as important as 30 minutes of physical movement. Tip: If all of your walk breaks throughout the day add up to 30 minutes, you’re already on track 🙂 Sitting for extended periods can cause back pain, shorten hamstring muscles, and hip pain just to name a few. Long story short, MOVE your body. And yes, yoga and dance breaks totally count.
What do you do or will start doing for self care?