Have you ever asked yourself ‘How do I start a self-care routine’? It can feel overwhelming to do in our fast-paced world, but it’s honestly not as difficult as it first sounds. Read on to learn how to create a manageable everyday self-care routine.
This Post Is All About How Do I Start A Self-Care Routine?
Why Is Self-Care Important?
You may have seen that self-care is a hot topic right now and many people are finally beginning to pay attention to the importance of it! But if you have ever asked yourself ‘How do I start a self-care routine’? Then you have come to the right place!
Creating a healthy and balanced self-care routine can be hard. Finding the right balance in your already busy life is challenging. But self-care is about prioritizing yourself and giving your body the attention you need.
Self-care allows you to take a step back from your busy life and dedicate a few quiet moments to focus on doing the things that are good for you. Whether it be for your mental or physical health.
Allowing yourself to fit in time to prioritize yourself will lead to benefits in both your mental and physical health. As well as allowing yourself to reduce stress, and overall increase your productivity! Taking the time to focus on your needs will help you find balance in your busy day and will prevent you from burning yourself out.
But setting a healthy self-care routine can be a challenge. Don’t worry though, read on to learn exactly how you can start fitting self-care into your routine and finally making it a priority for yourself! Here are 10 things to focus on when starting your very own self-care practice to make you a self-care pro!
So, How Exactly Do I Start A Self-Care Routine?
Reflect on how you are currently spending your time.
The very first thing you should do if you are planning to focus on creating a manageable everyday self-care routine is to reflect on your current habits. Take a step back and first observe how you spend your days.
When do you get the most tired? What are your morning and night routines? And during which part of the day do you have the most time to yourself?
After you establish your day-to-day patterns, you can start looking for the best spots to fit in new self-care habits.
Work on establishing healthy morning and night routines.
If you arn’t sure where to start when it comes to carving out time for self-care, first look into your morning and night habits.
Usually, the mornings and evenings are when you probably have the most time to yourself, so naturally they are the easiest times to fit in self-care.
Try experimenting with your routines. Wake up 30 minutes earlier one day to fit in some time to meditate, or stretch. Or even just taking the time to work slower through your usual routine can help you ground yourself and feel like your day isn’t starting out rushed.
Self-care shouldn’t feel forced. So experiment with adding small changes and take note of how they make you feel.
Set limits on your social media usage.
I don’t know about you, but so much of my day is dedicated to being on my phone. When I started to notice that and consciously cut out screen time, I suddenly had a lot more time to myself.
Often we use screentime to fill in the gaps of doing nothing in our day. If you have a few minutes to yourself you might fill it with checking email or scrolling tiktok. Try making it a habit to catch yourself and spend that time grounding yourself instead.
Self-care is also about what you see on your social media. It’s a good idea to go through your follow list and remove anyone who doesn’t align with the life you want to live. By cutting back on meaningless content that doesn’t make you feel good, can do wonders for your mental health.
Set and stick to work boundaries.
If you work from home it’s easy to let work bleed into your personal life. It can become difficult to differentiate between working time and personal time.
This is why setting boundaries is super important as part of your self-care practice. Pick a set working schedule and try your best to stick to it.
If you are in school, it’s equally important to do this as well. I remember how tough it can be to stay up late cramming last minute for your final the next day. And sometimes it’s necessary. But try not to make it an everyday habit.
It’s important to remember that things come up occasionally and it’s okay to be flexible. But make sure not to make late work nights a nightly habit.
Prioritize outdoor time.
Spending time outdoors is one of the best things you can do for your mental and physical health. Which is all part of a healthy self-care routine!
Try to prioritize spending time outside as much as you can. Spending time outdoors has tremendous health benefits. It increases your mood, your creativity, and your happiness! Plus the sun is the best source of vitamin D, and also enhances respiratory function!
If you usually spend your weekends inside, try inviting a few friends to do something new this weekend and run around the park throwing a frisbee or go on a hike. Bonus tip: If it’s really cold where you live and going outside isn’t an option, try investing in light therapy. It can bring you just as many benefits as natural light and may just be the thing to cure your winter blues!
My favorite way to spend time outdoors is to take a hot girl walk with a good audiobook. Time flies by! And I get in my 10k steps. A true win-win!
Experiment with different self-care practices.
Self-care is not one size fits all! Not everything that works for one person, will work for you. And that’s okay!
You might see influencers talk about their daily routines, where they start their morning with a 5-mile run and a 3-minute cold plunge. But that’s not necessary for everyone.
Experiment with different self-care ideas. And remember that they don’t need to be these huge elaborate and time-consuming tasks. Start simple, and don’t forget to experiment!
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Try mindfulness and meditation.
Prioritize taking the time each day to slow down and appreciate the present moment. So often I find myself just mindlessly on my phone, or always having something playing in the background. Such as YouTube, a podcast, or a TV show.
Experiment with just being alone with your thoughts if it’s not something you regularly do. This can be a great form of self-care. And also a great way to find out more about yourself.
You can try guided meditation through an app like Calm or Headspace. Or you can spend some time with just your thoughts being mindful of what comes to mind and releasing those thoughts as they come.
Prioritize your sleep.
What is the best way to start a self-care routine you may ask? The first and most important step to prioratizing yourself should be prioratizing your sleep!
Sleep is so vital to the human body and works to restore your body, helps your cognitive function, balances your mood not to mention the countless other benefits it has to our bodies.
Having a good sleep routine usually starts with having a good evening routine. If you are one of the few people who can fall asleep anywhere, anytime then consider yourself lucky! Either way, setting good habits around sleep is vital to taking control of your self care routine!
Move your body.
Right after sleep, the second self-care necessity you should aim to prioritize is moving your body. I don’t know about you, but I work from home so sometimes it’s hard to remember or even motivate myself to exercise.
Some of the things I have done to make daily movement easier is scheduling time for outdoor walks around the block, getting a standing desk and treadmill, and squeezing in a few squats during work calls. This has helped me add in extra exercise in my day where I normally wouldn’t.
Another one of my simple tricks you can try to incorporate movement into your self-care routine is to follow along to a stretching video. It’s such a simple, low-impact but beneficial way to work on your adding low-impact exercise into your routine!
Follow your intuition.
Throughout the process of finding a healthy self-care balance following your intuition is the only way to create lasting habits. Make sure to do frequent check-ins with yourself to make sure what you are doing feels right.
A lot of the time self-care can seem like just doing skincare and taking bubble baths. And while yes, it can be those things, it’s also about appreciating your body and nourishing it so you can feel and be your best!
Set time to work on your self care in the way that feels best for you. And don’t be afraid to experiment with different self-care habits until you find a routine that works for your body!
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