Today I’d like to talk about self care. Yes, that buzz word that has been thrown around a lot recently! But in all seriousness, I am a big fan of practicing self care and I think it’s something we should all do. So today I thought I’d share 5 very simple ways to practice self-care (hopefully you’ll find it helpful!).
I’ve been very stressed over the past few months between finishing uni, planning my London move and keeping up with blogging/YouTube. During this time, I’ve found it essential to do the following things in this list in order to stay sane if nothing else! So if you are feeling stressed, over-tired or a bit down I’d recommend trying these things out.
Get More Sleep
Ok so I understand that this is easier said than done! But, I think it is really important to work on a sleeping routine. By this I mean that you try to go to bed at a certain time & wake up at a certain time, making sure you get your full 7-9 hours of sleep. I wrote a post about my tips for getting to sleep and also for being a morning person.
Changing my sleeping patterns has been one of the best things I’ve done in the past year. I get made fun of by my friends for going to bed early and waking up so early, but they don’t know what they’re missing!
Exercise
This is something I’ve found has really helped with my stress levels recently. I know that a lot of the time exercising is the last thing you want to do but honestly it always makes you feel better. Even just going out for a walk or doing something gentle like yoga will fill you with endorphins and make you feel great!
For me, doing exercise is time to just be completely by myself and take my mind off of everything that is going on in my life. I also find that it really helps me get to sleep at night – which links back to point no.1!
Schedule in proper ‘me time’
By this I mean setting aside maybe 1-2 hours in a day to chill out and really unwind. This is actually something I struggle with, because my days seem to go so fast that all of a sudden it’s 10pm and I’m still on my laptop. But when I do set aside some time to give myself a pamper, read my book or paint my nails I always feel so much better for it.
I think it’s easy to think that coming home and fitting in a few hours of Netflix is ‘me time’, but for me I think that it doesn’t really help me destress. Don’t get me wrong, settling down with tea, a blanket and Netflix is one of my favourite things to do! But making time for those things that you always forget to do, or just don’t ‘have the time’ to do, for yourself feels so much better.
Declutter your life
I am a huge fan of decluttering! I don’t just mean possessions – decluttering any negative things in your life is a great way to practice self care. Obviously getting rid of any things you no longer need will free up more space in your home and improve your environment. But I want to focus on the other non-physical things today.
I feel like an easy way to get rid of any negative energy in your life is to have a social media declutter. We are using social media so much that it has become such a huge influence on our lives, so removing the things that make us feel bad about ourselves can only be a good thing. Unfollow the Instagram accounts that make you feel self-conscious about yourself, get rid of the overly negative people on your Twitter timeline and just delete those people you never talk to from school on Facebook!
Learn to say no
This is probably my biggest tip. Over the past year I have really had to learn to say no to things. While it may result in some FOMO, I’ve come to realise that I can’t do everything and that I have to prioritise the most important things in my life. I feel like a lot of the time we feel pressure to do things in order to no let others down, all the while letting ourselves down by taking on too much.
For me, a lot of the time this means saying no to nights out and activities that involve drinking. I react so badly to alcohol nowadays and to be honest, my life is so busy that I just don’t have the time to feel tired or hungover! This won’t be everyone’s priority, and it is good to let your hair down sometimes, but that is just my way of taking care of myself.
My advice would be to say no to the things you really don’t want to do, but feel you have to do because of social pressure. Just say no! In a few days, I promise you’ll have forgotten about it and it won’t matter any more.
So those were my 5 simple ways to practice self care! I hope this was somewhat helpful, although I think self care means different things to everybody. I’d love to hear about how you practice self care and what you think of the whole concept in general!
