This is the beginning of self-love, welcome home!
Let’s keep one thing clear self-care isn’t always easy. Most of us are tip-toeing around our jobs or are too consumed by technology to take care of ourselves. Once the golden break, ‘Me-time’ has been pushed down to the last of our fundamentals. Kids are too young to understand personal care and adults are too busy to keep up with their awareness. We’ve always justified the lack of self-love and have somehow felt guilty about taking the time out of our busy schedules to love the inner soul. Reigniting a self-care journey might seem gruesome, but what if I help you unlearn the myths and walk you through the possibilities of change? I’m here to help people re-discover their true selves!
So, what is self-care?
We would have seen this word thrown around a lot, but the idea is still vague to many of us.
Self-care is almost everything you do to establish control over your fidgety self to maintain health by preventing diseases and unhygienic patterns in an attempt to unravel our best selves.
Why is self-care important?
While you’re running around taking care of the others, there is nothing wrong with soaking up to relax your tangled system. It simply means you are being mindful of your own business. Most of us lazybones think self-care is worth half our lifetime but the truth is you can bend rules and be at ease. Every small choice is taking you one step closer to wholesomeness. It can be as effortless as taking a deep breath, brushing twice a day or even avoiding that extra cube of sugar. Self-care is everywhere and it doesn’t take an elaborate plan to lead a healthy life like the million videos on YouTube suggesting a whole new rebirth formula. Better late than never, after all its one simple step!
How do you start?
Luckily you have a pool of options to choose from, starting with magazines to hiring a Life Coach. No matter what you choose, the goal is to find one that best fits your preference. Preparing yourself to learn and instill everything you find useful to make life easier yet organized.
Since self-care is a highly subjective practice, there is no set of rules dominating your decisions. Take a moment every day to appreciate yourself by allowing nourishing thoughts and measures. Lost for ideas? We have outlined some of the many tried and trusted strategies for you.
- Step outside
Ditching the comfort of your home to hustle in the outside world is one of the best methods to restore your energy. Being outside in green spaces has shown to support a healthy lifestyle or more like helping you build one. It has proven to improve mood and sleep patterns. Studies have revealed several health benefits including reduction of cortisol levels, muscle tension, heart rates and mental wellbeing. No wilderness around? Just steal a peek of your standard MacBook screensaver. Yes, it’s a confirmed remedy.
- The right scents
Yes, we know breathing techniques can switch you off from head to toe but what we breathe is just as important as how we breathe. While research bounced back and forth on the benefits of aromatherapy it is determined that Lavender essential oil in particular helped slash stress and anxiety in many people. However, play it safe! Oils can be tricky, a soothing bliss for one can be the nauseating abyss for another.
Finding your favorite aroma and keeping them at hand in form of candles, diffusers or even quirky bottles can be a great choice to create the peacefulness you adore.
- Shake it off
When everything falls, do the wiggle-wiggle. Or one of the other dances that makes you feel euphoric. Okay! It doesn’t matter; it can be any dance, not everyone is as stiff as a board like me.
You are not just weeding out stress but you may even burn a few extra calories. So, what’s there to lose? Dance your way out. Think of it as an impromptu make-believe dance club. Bad at dancing? You’re the audience, do as you please.
- Turn up the music
Yup, Chris Brown is right Afterall. ‘Turn up the music if they try and turn us down!’
As it turns out, science has caught sight of this. Research suggests listening to happy music impacts the psychobiological stress system resulting in a faster recovery.
- Laugh your heart out
I know we don’t actually laugh our heads off while texting “LOL”
But would it be a bad idea if I told you, it can help you relieve stress and anxiety? There is a reason why people say ‘laughter is the best medicine’. Science has backed this up several times
Your plan of action? Choose your favorite sitcom or a funny book, those reruns of F.R.I.E.N.D.S may actually be beneficial except for the last episode because I guarantee you a good cry out.
If you don’t get all blubbery looking at cute puppies, kittens or any other animal for that matter, I don’t know how else to help you. Thanks to all the pet parents and baby channels on social media platforms, we have a vast source. Science has it these fluffy photoshoots result in improved mood and higher productivity.
Just don’t let the boss catch you!
- Sufficient beauty sleep
Now, this can get tricky, stress would not you sleep but sleep is the only way to relieve stress! There are many strategies to control stress so it doesn’t interfere with your sleep. Taking time to relax and unwind before bed is important to sleep well. Taking a warm shower, getting a foot massage or even light stretching exercises can help. Certain scents and teas are also linked to better sleep cycles.
- And finally, don’t stress out!
Inducing self-care into your lifestyle is not easy, it takes time and effort in the right proportions. But it’s important to identify what works better for you, it’s highly personalized so what works for the others might not work for you in fact it may cause the opposite effects. Finding the sweet spot is the key motive, take it slow.
