6 Steps to Create a Self Care Practice That Works For You
Self care is essential to our wellbeing
Self care is not selfish. Self care is a necessity, not a luxury. If you decide to stop putting fuel into your car, it will eventually break down. Same thing goes for you. If you stop putting fuel into yourself, and I don’t just mean healthy food and water, you too will break down. Think about that for a second. You can’t run continuously without putting in some self care. The car, the oxygen mask, there are countless analogies, for a reason. We need self care, period.
Yes I hear you, self care, we hear about it all the time, but who has time for bubble baths? Self care doesn’t need to take hours, but we do need to prioritise it.
Here are some steps to setting up your self care practice.
Carve out time. So frequently we are caught in a cycle of saying and believing that we don’t have time for self care, that we can’t possibly fit it into our hectic, busy lives. I get it, I used to feel the same way, and it’s easy to get caught in this trap especially when feeling stressed and busy (when ironically, we need self care the most).
Do you notice yourself scrolling mindlessly on social media? Watching Netflix to unwind? Work out a time when you can set some time aside for your self care practice. Even if it’s only 3 minutes. Turn off the TV or notice when you’re scrolling on social media and use that time for your self care instead.
Identify what you would like your self care practice to look like. Perhaps it’s a few minutes of mindful breathing, 20 minutes of yoga, meditation, a walk outside, or a self massage with your Body Elixir after you shower. What is it that really makes you feel relaxed, good, and cared for? What fills your cup?
If you feel resistance to setting up a regular self care practice, you’re not alone, you’re human. A simple way to get through resistance is to identify the benefits of a regular, consistent self care practice. For example, I notice that meditating before bed relaxes me for sleep and I sleep better. Watching Netflix, scrolling on your phone, or rushing around before bed can leave you feeling wired and your brain stimulated (studies have shown that screens activate the brain and can make it harder to fall asleep. Try to avoid screens for 90 minutes before bed). Engaging in a relaxing self care ritual before bed can help you unwind and calm down your nervous system, ready for sleep. The benefits don’t end there. Engaging in regular self care can have positive impacts on our mood and levels of stress too. Self care is not a luxury, it’s essential to our health, to our nervous systems. Not to mention the oxygen mask analogy. Taking time out for yourself is essential to be able to care for others. You can’t give on an empty tank.
Prioritise a self care practice that is realistic. Start small, you can always add to it later. If you feel you don’t have time, tell yourself you will do your chosen self care practice for just one minute, and then if you have more time in the moment, continue. But give yourself at least that one minute. One minute is better than none at all.
Once you have chosen what your self care practice will look like, decide how you’ll reward yourself when you actually do it. Yes, self care is a reward in itself, but don’t skip this step. Rewarding your self care helps to rewire the brain, helping keep motivation for your self care practice high, so that your practice becomes habit rather than a chore. Reward is key. Perhaps when you’ve made time for your self care ritual for a set number of days, you can reward yourself with a nice coffee out, an ice-cream, or something that you love, something that brings you pleasure (and a dopamine hit).
Remember that setting up your self care practice is likely not something you will do only once. It may change over time and if you go through periods where you stop doing it, that’s also completely normal. I know myself that even though I know how good I feel when I have a regular, consistent at home yoga practice (thank you ‘Yoga with Adrienne’. If you don’t know who she is, I highly recommend you check her out on YouTube), I often go through phases where I stop this practice. When the habit is broken it’s just a matter of starting from step one again.
What will your self care practice look like?
Remember, a little bit of self care every day, or a few times a week, will go further than a holiday once a year. It’s what you do daily, the practices that become a consistent part of your life that have the biggest impact. What will your self care practice look like?
For more wellness tips sent directly to you, sign up to our mailing list below.
