Self-Care for Beginners: Establishing Self-Care Routines –Day 3

Welcome back to day 3 of my self care strategies series. Now that you know the benefits of self-care and what it does and doesn’t involve, it’s time to learn how to actually create a routine.

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Missed day one or two? Find them here!

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Your self-care routine should and will be personal to you, focusing on your individual needs. There’s a lot of mistakes you can make when creating a self-care routine so it’s important to know how to put an effective one into place.

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Here, you’ll discover how to establish a self-care routine that works for you.

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Missed out on the freebies from day one and two? Get them here by signing up below!

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Start with a goal

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Like anything in life, self-care is most effective when you have a goal to work towards. Think about the main thing you want to achieve by adopting self-care into your routine. Remember when we talked about focusing on the important tasks first in day 2? This is where that will come in handy!

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Is it to eliminate stress and anxiety? Or, perhaps you’re looking to improve your gut health? Whatever it is, write down the things you want to achieve through self-care and then pick the most important one to focus on first.

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It can also help to write down why that goal is important to you. This can help boost your motivation to achieve it. If you’re more of a visual person, you could even create a self-care vision board. If my goal is something daily, I even mark it on the calendar every day I accomplish the goal! It helps to have a visual to show you how much you are accomplishing. It can really help to keep you motivated. If I’m feeling really motivated or if I have a challenge I’m trying to follow (check out my 30-day self-care challenge here!), I’ll even make one of those craft paper chains to show how many days I was successful.

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Do things you actually enjoy

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When you’re creating a self-care task list, it’s important to add things in that you actually enjoy. It’s all well and good adding things like meditation and yoga. However, if you don’t enjoy these activities, you’re not going to keep it up. I tried yoga because my fiancé loves it and swore it would be good for me. However, I absolutely hated it. So while it’s amazing for me, it is not something I include in my self care strategies.

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Self-care is different for everyone. So, just because something is dubbed healthy, it doesn’t mean you should necessarily adopt it. You’ll want to find self-care tasks that are healthy, but which also focus on things you actually enjoy. There are so many strategies you can adopt, you just need to find the ones that work for you. Looking for self care ideas? Check out these posts here

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Start with the very basics

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When you’re just getting started with self-care, you’ll want to stick to the basics. That is, the core principles of health such as sleep, diet and exercise. If you are struggling with ideas for where to start with self care, these categories are the best to explore first.

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Sleep is essential for our mind and body. If you’re not getting enough, it’s going to wreak havoc on your health. You’ll be more inclined to indulge in junk foods, you’ll feel constantly tired and it will weaken the immune system over time. So, by focusing on improving your sleep, you’ll automatically start to improve your overall health. Having trouble falling asleep? Try this recipe for golden milk. It will help you relax, unwind, and boost your body with antioxidants to refresh you for the next day. Check it out here!

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The same can be said for diet and exercise. In terms of your time, it’s important not to make drastic changes right away. This would make it more difficult to adjust to. So, instead focus on making small changes such as drinking more water and eating an extra piece of fruit each day. Looking for some healthy recipes to try? Check out all of my clean eating recipes here!

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Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can then move on to your more specific goals.

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Brainstorm your ideas

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Before getting started, it’s a good idea to brainstorm your ideas. Separate them into small tasks and larger ones. A smaller task could be taking a shower by yourself if you’re a new mom. Larger tasks could be getting away for a few days.

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Once you have your goal in mind, you can brainstorm all of the tasks you can do to achieve that goal. By having a list to work with, you’ll also be able to refer to it when you need a little inspiration. Looking for a way to organize all of your ideas? Try this self care journal here!

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Don’t be afraid to mix it up

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You’ll want to keep your self-care routine pretty flexible. If you try to follow a rigid schedule, it’s not going to work.

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Also, there’s going to be days you don’t feel like doing a certain self-care task. On these days, you can refer to your brainstormed ideas and pick something different that will help you to achieve the same goal. By staying flexible and mixing it up when you need to, it will increase the chances you’ll stick to your self-care routine. I keep a self care calendar that I try to use, but if I need to skip a day or change a task, I don’t fret over it! Remember, self care is tailored to you. If you’re not in the mood to do something, don’t do it!

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If you follow the tips and advice above, it’ll help you establish an effective self-care routine. It’s important not to overdo it and attempt to focus on too many things at the same time. Self-care takes time to build up as a habit. Like everything, the more you do it, the more ingrained it will become into your daily routine. Remember to make your self-care personal to you! Do you have some ideas that I might be missing? Let me know!

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Looking for more self-care tips and strategies? Check out my other posts in this self care series here!