Self-care is healthy, and a good habit to have in your life. However, if you were to adopt every single piece of advice you see online, use every product that was advertised, and avoided every single mistake or risk of living a normal human life, then you’d spend every day in your home, applying creams, meditating, relaxing, exercising the perfect amount, and never really living life.
You don’t have to make self-care a full-time job, and if it doesn’t fit sustainably within your schedule, then you don’t have to do it. That’s a little strange to hear in a world where self-care dogma seems to flow from every piece of advice online as if taking care of yourself is an idea you would have never considered otherwise.
Of course, we don’t mean to be too snarky, the truth is that buffering out the “noise” of self-care and focusing on what that means for you is more than enough. In this post, we’ll discuss some methods for achieving that outcome by prioritizing what it is that really matters:
Focus On “The Big Three”
If you can focus on a great, reliable self-care routine, you exercise three times a week, and keep a healthy diet with all the caloric requirements you need, then odds are, you’re doing pretty well with your self-care. Sure, this won’t account for every healing strategy you might need, but trust us when we say that without these pillars, no other self-care measures will help or sustain you.
Implement A Healthy Morning & Night Routine
Self-care shouldn’t be a chore, but part of your day-to-day routine. It should be so natural that you don’t even have to think about it, you just do it each day because it helps you feel good and wake up or fall asleep more easily. For example, you might use Dermalogica skincare measures to help you glow each morning, no matter what you have to do that day. At night, you might enjoy meditation for ten minutes and drink some chamomile tea. This helps you integrate comfort, pauses, and healing as part of your daily experience, not a one-off. This also makes sure you won’t miss a day.
Consider Habitual Processes
It’s always good to consider the habits you have and how they’re affecting your self-care regimen. So for example, playing intense video games or watching horror TV shows before bed can amp you up and make you feel excitable right at the time when you’re supposed to retire for the night. Perhaps you can avoid this by reading for thirty minutes before bed each night, which gets you away from the screen and encourages a better and more relaxed form of comfort. That in itself can be enjoyable. As you can see, self-care isn’t about what you do now or later, but how you integrate practices int your schedule that aid you.
With this advice, you’re sure to pivot from the dogma of self-care culture, and instead, focus on caring for yourself. You’ll certainly notice a difference between the two.