Like any new habit, adding self-care into your life can seem hard to figure out at first. When I started trying to take better care of myself I was wondering how to manage to find the time in my day and be consistent with self care as a habit.
One of the best ways to get started is to create a routine for yourself. In order to make something a habit, by definition it has to happen regularly and the activities need to be incorporated into predictable parts of your day.
Keep reading, and I’ll share some tricks to making self-care a routine part of your life.
Create a Custom Routine
The first thing that will help you create your own customized self-care rituals is to choose activities that you enjoy and that are meaningful to you. This is your personal self care routine, so make sure it’s really customized to YOU so you get the most out of it!
Make a list of things that help you to feel relaxed, peaceful, and happy. Look for simple activities you can do in a short amount of time and incorporate into your daily routine. Who doesn’t love a spa day? We all do..but those are for special occasions. And what we’re trying to do is to incorporate self care into our daily routines.
Look for quick and simple things. For example, listening to relaxing music, going for a walk, calling a friend who gives you positive energy. Go ahead and write down a few quick things right now.
Decide Where to Slot your Self Care
A really important part of succeeding with self care routines as a daily routine is just the simple part of thinking for a few minutes very practically and realistically about how you can actually add them to your day.
Grab your pen and paper and think about what you can slot into an AM or morning self care routine and what you can slot into a PM or evening self care routine.
And also if you work in an office, and get a lunch break, then a mid-day lunch routine might be part of your list too.
Consider activities like:
- Gratitude Journal – doing a gratitude journal entry
- Listening to Music – for the AM this might be more upbeat and uplifting music to get your energy up. For the evening it might be more chill music or binaural beats to help you wind down.
- Taking a walk – if you have a step goal (e.g. 10,000 steps a day) a morning or evening or lunch time walk is a great way to make sure you get steps across the course of a day.
- Affirmations – saying one or more affirmations.
After you’ve created your list with these activities, the next step is to write down where and when you will do them.
Right now, just take a minute and commit to it. For example – “I will write in my gratitude journal in the morning. And go for a walk after dinner every evening.”
Be Flexible with your routine
Getting into the practice of regular self-care can be fairly simple once you have worked through these details. Once you have committed the specifics to the time of day in the step above, you just need to follow through on your plan. And if it’s a well thought out plan it should be easy to do.
If you are running into issues, then you will need to troubleshoot and be flexible with your routine. If you have a long list and never get it done, its time to pare things down. Start with ONE ITEM and then make that a consistent routine. You can add more items later.
Of if you have a very busy day and things didn’t go according to plan, then adjust things on that day and be flexible with your approach. In general, the best approach is to come up with a regular routine you can stick to as that will help you create a regular habit and ensure you are doing self care activities daily.
However, you might have to cut yourself some slack. Some days are more hectic than others, right?
If you’re not able to fit in your planned self-care activity, be forgiving of yourself. And remember that tomorrow is a new day, and you can try again. Soon, you’ll find yourself wanting to take part in these rituals, and getting back on track will be easy.
Morning and Evening Self Care Routines
The final step is to take a post it or notecard and take the items you’ve generated above and write out a few bullets and put things down as either a morning self care routine or an evening self care routine. And if you can write down specific times to do the routines, that will help you be more successful at completing your routines.
As always, share what is working for you with the Namaste Nourished community and leave us a comment below.
Related: Add a Kansa Wand to your evening skincare routine.
