10 Ways to Practice Self Care.

Here are ten ways to practice self care and mental health.

Some or most of these are things you might know, tell yourself you need more of in your life or maybe even hear other people tell you.
Of course, in no way do I expect you to wake up tomorrow and start incorporating all these at once. So, try adding one focus per day or even one focus per week to slowly integrate these into your life.

And if you would like more help infusing these into your routine, sign up for more info on my online course: Healing with Self Care

1. Learning to know your limits.
   Boundaries. Stop allowing people to push you past your emotional or mental healthy boundaries. Of course its different if you are working on self-growth and purposefully pushing yourself to grow or something along those lines. But you should know that after 45 hours of working for the week you have hit your limit and you are doing more emotional draining than quality of work. Discover your limits and then set that boundary for your health.
2. Knowing when to rest.
   Most religions are really good at this, they have established one day each week that they do not work. They devote that time to relationships & spiritual self care. However, you do not have to be a religious person to partake in this (unless your job doesn’t see this as a good thing…then totally pull the religion card). One day per week to take an extra long shower or bath, to spend time reading or writing, to sit and talk over hot tea….you get the picture right? One day to stop thinking about work or worry and just practice living in the moment.
3. Food, bathing & tidiness.
   Duh, right? Yes, we do these everyday but how we do them and how we think about them can change. These can become healing self care practices or they can be to-do list items. Mindfully choose your food and mindfully eat with no distractions, allow a shower to become a meditation and cleansing ritual and tidy your home to reflect how you would like your mind to be.
4. Having a system to decompress.
   After a super stressful endeavor, day or drama moment it is really good to know how to decompress in a healthy way…instead of turning to a pint of ice cream that you then regret next week. Maybe its a hot bath with candles, the hot tub or sauna at the gym, meditation in cozy clothes, a favorite place outside. Create a list to turn to.
5. Stop stressing over things you cannot change and look at what you can.
   You cannot change it. So spending time thinking about what you could have done differently will not help. But you can make a list of 3 things you learned from it and then mentally commit to stop living in the past. Look at what you can do right now to get yourself where you want to be or what you can do right now to improve yourself and your life.
6. Taking time to get to know yourself better, while learning to love yourself.
   Self-love! This is where its at! Stop waiting for someone else to treat you nice and lead by example. Let other’s see your expectation of care for you and they will rise to the occasion and if they don’t…well, you still have you and as your self worth increases you might start to see who you do and don’t need in your life. Take time to journal, go to yoga, find out your likes and dislikes, learn a new skill and date yourself.
7. Incorporating things that bring you joy into your life consistently.
   An easy way to do this can be using your five senses: Smell, Touch, Taste, Sight, Hear. Diffuse some auromas that make you feel calm and happy, Have a cozy sweater or blanket, Sip on a delicious healthy tea, Have art or pictures that make you feel good, and play sounds or music that stimulate pleasure.
8. A morning and evening routine.
   This can sound daunting if you are a person that tries to avoid routine. But try to think of it of not the stuff you need to get done, but instead the stuff you want to get done. Allow your morning and evening routine to be all the things that you want in your life and enjoy so that no matter what – you begin and end your day with happiness.
9. Nurturing your spiritual self.
   This can be woven into you one restful day or your morning and evening routine, but I list it again because I really cannot emphasise enough, the importance of your spiritual self. Take time to listen to what your spiritual self is craving; maybe its to volunteer once per month or to write/journal. Its normally that thing you keep thinking you need..make that a priority and find a way to incorporate that into your day, week or month.
10. Practicing Gratitude for the now and future.
    An Attitude of Gratitude will attract more of what it appreciates. Gratitude is the one thing that scientists have been able to prove in a lab setting that increases your happiness and in turn reduce your stress levels. Write 3 things you are grateful for, daily.