Tips to Help Increase Your Self-Care In Order To Be the Best You!
To see the full post called How to Be the Best You, click here.
Get more sleep. Your whole self cannot function on empty. Be kind to yourself, go to bed earlier, and take steps to increase your quality of sleep.
Be good to your body, eat food that your body wants. Eat food that is going to fuel your body, not food that is just going to defuel it. Everyone has different diets. Take note of your diet and how it makes you feel mentally and physically as it’s all connected.
I, myself, have been trying to abide by a plant-based diet (or as close to it as possible). When I say plant based I always get the question, “what do you eat?”, well there is a LOT! If your bored, check out this podcast, it was one of the game changers for me- https://www.plantstrongpodcast.com/blog/drb-fiber-fueled and also check out the documentary The Game Changers https://youtu.be/ove9b16OeR4…literally, enormously eye opening!!
Get some exercise. Exercise is so good for your physical, emotional, and mental state and improves your wellbeing. It’s proven that exercise is a stress reliever and can increase your feel-good endorphins. I’m not implying to go run a 5k, but what I am saying is MOVE. Your body will thank you today and as it ages.
I understand exercise is not everyone’s thing… be creative. Exercise doesn’t always mean putting on workout clothes and working up a sweat. Go for a short walk, do some out of the box housework that uses different muscles. Get that heart rate up! You will find you have some of the best conversations with yourself and realizations during exercise!
Do something for you! Stop putting yourself on the backburner. Yes, there are a million people that might be counting on you. Put things into perspective and determine if those people that are counting on you could wait an hour or two, or maybe even another day while you give yourself some attention! Maybe it’s buying yourself flowers, maybe it’s watching a movie, maybe it’s getting a massage.
Stop feeling guilty! Stop feeling guilty for caring for yourself and wanting to put your own feelings first. It’s ok to do something for you, putting yourself before others. What good are you in your life to take care of others, if you aren’t taking care of yourself? You aren’t, you won’t be able to take care of anyone else because you will be messy and unhappy!
Part of self-care is You doing you! I know you might be thinking, “put others on the backburner? I can’t do that, that would make me selfish!”. News flash, what’s more selfish is depriving yourself and others of the best you. I promise, give yourself some care and you will see all aspects of your life will start to improve.
Listen to what you really want. Whether it’s listening to your inner feelings, saying ‘no’ to something, or making the decision YOU want to make instead of what someone else wants. It’s ok if it’s what you want!
Realize imperfection is ok. It’s ok to be imperfect, that’s what makes us human and unique. Nothing is perfect, but the imperfections are what makes you, YOU! It’s what makes your personality shine…
Stop comparing yourself to other people. When you look at other people you are seeing their lives through your own lens… an outside lens. Things are rarely what they seem. YOU ARE good enough, focus more on yourself and less on others that you think are like you.
Take a breath! Seriously, in many situations this technique totally works. Close your eyes inhale deeply through your nose (5 seconds) and then exhale slowly out of your mouth (5 seconds). Do it more than once! You will find that this helps you react better in the moment and helps ground yourself when you’re feeling overwhelmed. This allows you to re-center because it stops your current thought pattern.
Get into nature! Whether you are sitting on your deck looking into nature or going on a hike. The fresh air, the outside, the beauties around us typically have a way of calming our minds and bringing us back to being mindful. This is another great place that allows you to just ‘be’.
