Now that you know what self-care is and the benefits it can deliver, you’re probably keen to get started. However, as self-care focuses on so many different things, it can be difficult knowing where to start. Below, you’ll discover some of the best ways to start self-care and a few things you’ll want to avoid.
Focus on the most important tasks first
You’ll want to start by ensuring you’re focusing on the most important self-care tasks first. That is, the area of your life which needs the most improvement.
For example, if it’s your health you’re trying to improve, think about the tasks that will help you tackle the issue. It could be that you’re constantly tired because you don’t get enough sleep. So, focusing on tasks that help to improve your sleep would be the first thing you’ll focus on.
You’ll often find that when you focus on the most important tasks first, it sets other improvements in motion. When you start getting sleep, for example, it will boost your physical and mental health as well as boost your energy levels.
Emotional
To stay healthy, it’s important to look after the body’s physical needs. That is, making sure you get enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, and exercising regularly. However, physical self-care is so much more than just healthy eating and staying active.
When you’re focusing on physical self-care, it includes ensuring you’re not adopting any unhealthy coping mechanisms such as binge eating or missing sleep to binge-watch a series. It means taking time out when you’re sick and going to medical appointments whenever you need to.
Schedule self-care into your calendar
If you find it difficult to find time to focus on self-care, start scheduling it in the calendar. Even just setting aside 15 minutes each day for self-care will deliver a lot of benefits.
When you schedule self-care into your schedule, you’re marking it as a priority. This is a key way to ensure your new self-care routine actually sticks. Treat your scheduled self-care time just as you would any appointment. Don’t cancel it and try and fit it into your regular routine, rather than trying to keep it separate.
Keep it simple
A great tip when starting with self-care is to keep it simple. There might be lots of things you want to change but trying to focus on too many at the same time can cause you to give up on your routine.
While that initial motivation to get everything done is awesome, it’s not possible to maintain it. So, if you want to stick to your new routine, make sure you’re focusing on simple habits first.
Consider taking a self-care trip
As well as adding simple self-care tasks into your daily routine, it can be a great idea to find time to take an actual self-care trip. That is a little break away to focus solely on self-care.
This could be a spa day, a day trip somewhere, or even a camping trip. Just getting away from it all can help you to relax and rejuvenate. Short breaks away are an important part of self-care and they don’t need to be costly.
Get to know yourself
If you want to get the best results to form your self-care practice, you’re going to need to know yourself. What do you want from life and who do you want to be? What kind of things do you like and what don’t you want from life? These are just some of the questions you should ask yourself.
The more you know yourself, the easier you’ll find it to practice self-care that really resonates with who you are and what you want.
Things to avoid
There are a few things you’ll want to avoid when getting started with self-care. These include:
- Over-compensating
- Over-indulging
- Eating for comfort
- Too many “you” days
It’s easy to go from one extreme to another when you’re starting with self-care. If you haven’t done anything for yourself for a while, it’s tempting to start over-compensating and over-indulging. However, this isn’t healthy, and it’ll only lead to frustration and unhealthy results.
As you can see, it’s easy to get started with self-care. The above are just some of the tips you can use to start making self-care a part of your normal routine.