Self-care is a buzzword right now, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. Placing an emphasis on self-care is important for everyone and it helps people be the best version of themselves. But self-care does look different for everyone and you have to figure out what works best for you on your self-care journey.
While we can talk about self-care and I can give you ideas for it ultimately your self-care journey is yours. I may recommend something that is self-care for me, but you might find stressful and that’s okay. With that being said there are several areas of self-care that are important to focus on in some way including movement, fuel, sleep, mental health, boundaries and more.
To start to evaluate your self-care consider the following questions;
- What am I doing to ensure I’m moving?
- What am I doing to eat healthy?
- What am I doing to make sure I’m getting the best sleep?
- What am I doing for my mental health?
- What boundaries am I setting to protect myself?
- What am I doing for myself socially?
- What am I grateful for today?
When you are answering these try not to be critical or hard on yourself when it comes to the answers. These questions are designed to get you to start thinking about the different areas of self-care and what you are doing in those areas.
If you find that there are areas that are lacking or that your self-care isn’t as top notch as you would like it to be, those are the areas you want to focus on improving your self-care practices. And to do that here’s 5 tips to help you start to improve those areas.
Start with one area
When starting on your self-care journey you may find that you want to improve your fitness, sleep and nutrition all at once, however I would encourage you to start with one area. Choose the area that is of most importance to you (and there is no right or wrong answer here) and start with that one. When trying to build new habits and practices it’s important to start small and build on them rather than trying to overhaul everything all at once.
Choose one behaviour under that area
Once you’ve chosen the area you would like to focus on consider one behaviour under that area. If you have chosen to focus on nutrition then maybe you start with drinking more water. Avoid trying to layer more than one thing on top of that.
Come up with a 5 minute action
The 5 minute action is a great way to get yourself started building new habits. Although you may not think of it this way, starting a self-care plan is building new habits and the best way to build habits is through the 5 minute action concept. Choose an action that you can do that will help you work towards that habit that will take you 5 minutes or less…because honestly we can all find 5 minutes in a day if we put down our phone for 5 extra minutes. If you can keep up with this consistently it will be easier to implement these new habits into your life.
Track your progress
Tracking your progress is one the easiest ways to stay consistent with new habits. Checking them off can be so motivating and helpful to keep you moving forward. Find a tracking method that works for you. Perhaps its an app on your phone or maybe its a piece of paper you check off on your fridge. Whatever it is keep it in sight as a reminder of how far you’ve come.
Re-evaluate if needed
Re-evaluating your 5 minute action is a big one. If you find yourself not being consistent with your habits or struggling to get it done try re-evaluating and doing something smaller. It’s okay to make changes where needed in order to help yourself be successful.
Self-care is a huge buzzword right now, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t important. Remember that your self-care journey is yours and that you don’t need fancy or expensive things to begin a self-care journey. You just need a few minutes to build an action plan and few minutes each day to put your plan into action.
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