5 Ways to Enhance Your Self-Care
1 - Give yourself permission. You have to tell yourself it is OK to take the time to prioritize you! We often convince ourselves that self-care is selfish. If that narrative ever enters into your thoughts - you are not alone! What I want you to hear is this: You are less effective when you are burned out. You get less done and at a lower level of quality. Self-care is actually the opposite of selfish - it is what allows you to show up as your best self and make the highest level of impact you can.
2 - Schedule it on your calendar. How often do we tell ourselves we do not have the time to take care of ourselves? You have to increase your odds you will follow through. Scheduling it (and not giving that time away) will be a valuable way to ensure it happens! Don't forget - it doesn't have to be a week. Or a day. Or an hour. I talk about the 15 minutes of White Space I give myself between client meetings. Five minutes can count as self-care if you use it correctly!
3 - Make it easy. Like super simple! If you want to journal, have it out and ready to go. If you want to drink more water, carry a water bottle. If you want to take a work out class, have one picked out (here are some great Virtual Barre Classes!). If there are any barriers, it will be easy to fill that time with something else less productive and less healthy.
4 - Pick something that fits you. Click here to see 52 self-care ideas! There are millions of ideas around self-care out there. Don't just pick something because someone else said it works for them. Pick something that aligns with what you need and what you love. Just because someone you follow meditates for 10 minutes a day doesn't mean you have to. Just because self-care looked like going for a walk yesterday doesn't mean today self-care can't look like rolling around on the ground with your puppy. What you need changes by the day, what your schedule permits changes by the day.
5 - Be present. Time scrolling through pinterest is NOT self-care. Self care is activating one of those pins you saved. If you give yourself 15 minutes of self care time, and you spend it on your phone, you do NOT walk away refreshed.
