10 Ways To Practice Self Care

January for most people is all about New Year, New Me. Everyone sets their New Years resolutions and attempts to keep on top of them and if you’re anything like me you generally give up after a week or 2. “Self Care” is a hot topic at the minute with a lot of people taking about how we need to start looking after ourselves before starting to look after others, so I thought I’d put together a list of 10 ways you can practice self care.

Designate Some Me Time into Your Day.

We all have busy lives be it work, school, college, family life or sport it can be hard to designate alone time just for yourself but taking 5 or 10 minutes out of your day to do something just for yourself can have a huge benefit for you. What I’ve started doing recently is before going to bed I turn on my Salt lamp and I sit at my desk and do some colouring.. yes colouring, I got some of the mindfulness adult colouring books a while back and started using them again and I find it really helps me switch my mind off and just focus on doing the one task.

Put That Phone Away!

I’ll hold my hands up and say I am a smartphone and social media addict! I’m constantly on my phone, be it checking messages, catching up on friends Snapchat stories or aimlessly scrolling through Facebook or Twitter I find it hard to look away. I look at a screen for 8 hours a day then come home and do at least another 4 on my phone, it can’t be good for anyone! I’m really trying to put my phone down in the evenings and just switch off from life online for a little bit.

Journaling

This is something I’ve been doing for quite a while now, as a teen I had the usual diaries and actually stuck pretty rigorously to them writing in them every night, now I do it less often but if something is on my mind or something really good happens I like to write it down to either get it off my chest or to remember it.

Develop a Skincare Routine

I am so so lazy when it comes to taking care of my skin. My skin care routine currently consists of a bit of moisturiser. One thing I want to master this year is a proper skin care routine. Find the products that actually suit my skin and use them rather than have them sitting on my bathroom shelf unopened.

Drink More Water

I’m generally not too bad when it comes to drinking water but I could definitely do with a boost in my intake! I’m a tea-addict, I could easily drink 6 cups or more during my 8 hour day at work so I’m trying my best to switch a cup or 2 of tea to a bottle of water to increase my intake.

Meditation

This one is a bit of an unusual one. I was always a bit of a skeptic when it came to meditation purely because whenever we tried it in secondary school no-one ever really paid attention and eventually we’d just start talking and it ended up just being a waste of time. I tried again recently using the app “Headspace” and I enjoyed it. It’s a 10 minute guided meditation and it’s a great way to take some time out of your day to relax. Only problem is I get lazy and don’t continue doing it!

De-Clutter Your Wardrobe

I’m a clothes hoarder, why I don’t know I just find it very hard to let go of some things – I even have some old sports gear from my various teams I played on as a kid but every now and then a good aul root through the wardrobe and getting rid of all the crappy stuff you don’t wear any more is well worth the effort.

Get Outside

Another thing I am terrible at is making time for exercise. If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m a super lazy person and I kind of hate it cause I wasn’t as a kid. I was always active and doing something so once it gets bit warmer and a bit less miserable I’m hoping to incorporate some activity and fresh air back into my life!

Read A Book You Always Wanted To Read But Never Did

Ah reading, one of the pastimes I struggle most with. Why, I don’t know but I never took to it. I am challenging myself to start reading more this year and a book/books I’ve always wanted to read but never did are the Harry Potter books. I love love love the movies but never took to reading the books and I kind of feel like I’m missing out on a whole other world inside the Harry Potter world. So this year I’m hoping to get through some if not all of the books, I have the first one read and I’m about 90 pages into the second one! We’ll see how far I get by my 2018 Year in Review post in December!

Make a “Feel Good” Playlist

The songs I listen to have a huge impact on my mood for the day. Creating yourself a playlist of all your favourite upbeat/ happy songs is one of the best ways to spread a little joy into your life!