As busy moms, we may not have time to fit in a weekly facial, but there are other wonderful self-care ideas you can treat yourself with on a daily basis.
When you start thinking about making a self-care plan, you will want to think about things that you enjoy, and that can help you recharge your mental batteries. Also, think about how you can easily fit something small into each day, so that you aren't building a huge, impossible, habit all at once.
What is self care?
Overall, self-care means doing things to take care of your own wellbeing. Many times, especially as care givers, we tend to neglect our own needs in favor of others.
Often, we may either think that we are too busy for self-care, or that it is selfish to want to do things for ourselves when there are tasks that need to be completed.
Before I jumped on the self-care bandwagon, I had to rethink what self-care meant to me.
There are many different forms of self-care. Physical, mental, emotional. We can take care of ourselves in all of these ways, and you can reflect on what is lacking in your own life right now to be able to make a self-care plan.
For me, one of the most important aspects of self-care is setting boundaries. Saying no to things that don't serve you is a big way to take care of your mental and emotional health. If you don't want to bake a pie for your child's class, get store bought. If you don't want to go to a family dinner, don't.
Protecting your boundaries can make you feel so much better about yourself and your life.
Sample Ideas for Self-Care
Sample Ideas for Self-Care ways to care for yourself, and you will want to find something that you enjoy.
Some examples would be:
Journaling
Taking a hot bath
Painting your nails
Giving yourself a facial
Reading a book
Dance to music
Listen to a podcast
Decluttering
Completing back-burner tasks
Have a cup of hot coffee or tea
Go to a book club
Participate in sports
Play a game
Make a craft
Do a crossword puzzle
Making a plan
When you start to make a self-care plan, start small. Building new habits is easier when you decide on something that is easily achievable.
Setting small, manageable goals is the first step to making any kind of life changes, and this goes for self-care too. If you try to institute a huge, intensive self-care plan, you are apt to fail. You may even want to give up on the idea of self-care entirely.
For example, if you like reading and want to use that as a form of self-care, plan to read for five minutes a day. It is what you want, and it is a manageable timeframe. Once you have fit that five minutes into your schedule, it will be easier to start reading for a longer amount of time, because you have already built the habit.
If you can't do something in just a few minutes, you could schedule one day a week. This would work if, for example, you wanted to go to a book club.
Once you have gotten off to a small start, you can gradually increase the time you are spending on your self care. You can do this by spending more time on the one habit you started with, or by adding a second habit.
Self Care With Kids
If you have kids, it can feel hard to carve out time for self-care, even if it is only five minutes a day.
In this case, you may want to plan your self-care time either first thing in the morning before the kids get up, or at night once they have gone to bed. Personally, I try to do both. That way I feel relaxed throughout the day.
When I get up, I do yoga and journal first thing. Right before I go to bed, I listen to a meditation tape to wind down.
If this doesn't work, you may want to talk to your partner and enlist their help caring for the children while you take time for self care. If you are working well as a team, you can even trade off so that you both will have time for self care each day, or each week.
Conclusion
It may seem difficult at first to take time for self-care, but it has many benefits for your health and wellbeing. If you start small, with just a few minutes a day, then you can build a self-care habit that will leave you feeling rejuvenated.
What do you think? Which of these types of self care do you want to try? Let me know in the comments! I always love hearing from you all! Also, let me know if there are additional topics that you would like me to write about in the future.
