Can you say that you love yourself? And what does that even mean? How often do you make sure that you’re taking good care of yourself? Implement these 7 habits to create your self care ritual.
In one of the previous articles of this series, we talked about creating a morning routine as part of a daily self-love ritual. I hope that you now start your day on a positive note, reinforced by a selection of small beneficial actions and that this has made a difference in how your day goes.
Now let’s look at a few more actions to add to your daily self-love routine and take your self-care to a higher level.
- 7 Steps to Create Your Self Care Ritual
- 1. Start Your Daily Self Care Ritual with Healthy Food
- 2. Add a Creative Activity To Your Self Care Ritual
- 3. Pamper Yourself with a Massage
- 4. Calm Your Mind With Mediation
- 5. Recharge Your Body With Relaxation
- 6. Create Your Better Future With Visualization
- 7. Experience Pure Joy With Dance
- Self Care Is For Everyone
- Week 7 Summary:
- Self Love Program
7 Steps to Create Your Self Care Ritual
1. Start Your Daily Self Care Ritual with Healthy Food
One of the first places you can start with self-care is by making good choices when it comes to fueling your body.
Of course, providing your body with the proper nutrition is the best way to take care of yourself. So feed your body with good stuff and you’ll be on your way to making major improvements in a physical area.
Just with a small amount of research, you can learn how to make some really tasty snacks and meals that will help you to feel satisfied and give you what you need to start your day right. Above all, choosing a good breakfast will help you to keep your performance at a high level throughout much of the day.
Try making sure that you have a simple breakfast with carbs and protein so that you have some easy-to-digest nutrients right at the start of the day. You can do this by eating whole-grain cereal with your choice of protein. From yogurt with nuts and berries to eggs, bacon, and beans on sourdough toast, make sure that your breakfast will provide the main fuel for the day ahead.
2. Add a Creative Activity To Your Self Care Ritual
How you express yourself is an essential aspect of who you are.
Nevertheless, self-expression is an often overlooked part of mental health. That’s why a lot of mental health programs rely heavily on the arts to help rehabilitate people. Therefore, finding a way to express yourself is an integral component of your daily self care ritual.
If you feel restless and none of your usual activities seem to quiet your clamoring mind, perhaps your spirit needs a new form of expression.
There’s an increasing body of scientific research that supports the benefits of creativity for overall health. Engaging in a creative activity lifts mood, reduces stress, and enhances the ability to notice possibilities in our lives.
For example, you can try taking a painting class, learning a new instrument, learning a new language, or taking up some other mellow hobby.
As long as you’re working towards expressing yourself, you’ll feel a certain kind of calm coming over you.
Learning a new language can be great because you are actually learning to communicate with people with whom you wouldn’t have been able to communicate previously. Languages are also an excellent skill for a variety of businesses and learning one prevents cognitive decline, such as dementia.
But don’t worry if you don’t feel up to a challenge right now. As I always say, start with something simple. You can’t fail to notice that coloring for adults has been a thing for a good while. Enter any newsagents or supermarket and chances are you’ll find a variety of coloring books under the mindfulness umbrella. Yes, simple but hugely satisfying!
3. Pamper Yourself with a Massage
Admit it. You love a good massage. Who doesn’t?
How many times have you promised to treat yourself to a massage but never did make that appointment?
It’s one of those things we know is good for us, but we begrudge taking time out and spending money on pampering,
Massage shouldn’t be something reserved for wealthy people or a super special occasional treat we only reward ourselves with when we perform well.
Massage reduces stress, relieves tension, relaxes your body, improves circulation, stimulates the lymphatic system, improves skin tone, and gives you an energy boost.
These are the main benefits of the massage and while the professional treatment is more effective, knowledgeable, and way more relaxing, you can use simple and safe self-massage techniques to help yourself.
You’re not stuck having to find someone to do it for you for cheap, you just need some time and a little knowledge. If you spend some time giving yourself a massage, you can thus contribute to maintaining your optimal mental health.
Massages are great for relieving stress, so doing them for yourself can never be a bad thing. Just be sure you know a little about the body before you go poking around some areas. Without the right knowledge, you could possibly press too harshly and bruise yourself under your tissues. Be gentle until you have a greater command of the knowledge of massage.
A few tips for self-massage:
- To stimulate digestion, rub your abdomen with both palms in clockwise circles after meals
- Gently thump your body with fists in the morning and evening – arms and legs from top to bottom, chest from bottom to top
- Using lotion, gently knead your muscles wherever you feel tension
Safety tip: if you receive any blood-thinning treatment, proceed carefully as you might bruise easily.
4. Calm Your Mind With Mediation
Meditation is hugely popular and there’s a good reason for it.
This ancient technique can be practiced by anyone and anywhere, without any special equipment, and brings enormous benefits to your mental health. It is one of the main building blocks of your self care ritual.
There are many levels and depths of meditation, many types, styles, and techniques, and so much information out there that it’s confusing to make sense of it.
We’re now spoilt for choice and too much choice can be also off-putting as we just don’t know where to start.
For our purposes, let’s forget about the nuances of the art of meditation.
Because there’s no need to master meditation or worry about doing it properly.
So let’s just simply begin with what you can do right now.
Each day, find a space where you’ll be undisturbed, sit or lie down comfortably, close your eyes, and breathe naturally for 5-10 minutes, letting your thoughts come and go, returning your attention to your breath each time your mind wants to focus on a thought. Let it go and return to your breath gently.
That’s it.
I’m really not good at meditation and I found it very hard to relax at first. But with the helping hand in the form of a variety of available podcasts and apps, it became easier.
5. Recharge Your Body With Relaxation
This is my go-to technique when things get too much and I can’t be bothered with meditating, exercising or writing or anything, to alleviate the physical or mental fatigue.
Every single time, without fail, the full-body relaxation delivers.
I feel rested, energized and more positive.
I’m sure you’ve heard of this before, and the chance are you’ve tried it too. But for those who have not, this is what you need to do.
Lie down or sit somewhere comfortable. I prefer the floor rather than the bed because the firmness of it pressing against your body helps to bring awareness to the muscles. Which is what we’re aiming for.
Then close your eyes and breathe naturally.
Next, perform the full-body scan, head to toe, limb by limb, gradually focusing on each part of your body individually. Usually, the neck and head come last.
As you breathe, bring awareness into the part of the body you’re focusing on, imagining that with each in-breath you bring a new life force in, and with each out-breath, you’re expelling the tension.
With each out-breath, the body becomes heavier and sinks deeper, until you’re unable to move.
Like with meditation, there are many variations to this, but for our purposes here, we can just start with the simplest approach described above.
Again, there’s a good selection of guided relaxation podcasts and apps, to help you along.
This is so worth it, every time I do it, I’m surprised how effective this technique is.
6. Create Your Better Future With Visualization
Now that we’ve rested the mind through meditation and the body through relaxation, we can take advantage of our relaxed and receptive state of being.
This is a perfect time to do some priming, to create a reality in your mind that goes beyond the surface layers and deeper into the subconscious.
In your imagination, create a scenario that you want to come true.
However, this is not mere daydreaming. This is actually much better. Because you are actively making your brain believe that what you’re rehearsing in your mind is reality.
Be very specific in terms of details. What you’re wearing, what you’re feeling, what your movements are and how your body feels, what sounds you’re hearing, what words you’re saying, what things you’re seeing.
Think like an animator, bringing to life a children’s movie. Just take a Disney movie, every detail is carefully thought out, the characters, the story, the songs, the score, the little clever details you don’t notice on the first viewing.
Perhaps you’ll get stuck, things will be blurry, and you’ll have difficulty imaging in detail what you desire.
But don’t worry.
Practice visualization and refine your story each time. Gradually, you’ll flesh out the movie and you’ll be able to see and feel clearly.
I have tried this and I must say that this really and truly works. I created a scenario and replayed it in my mind a few times. A couple of years later, I found myself in a few situations where I realized I’m living a scene from my short movie. Down to every detail.
This is how powerful visualization is.
Top athletes use this technique to achieve results and, most importantly, wins.
7. Experience Pure Joy With Dance
Finally, after all that mental workout, you deserve to have some fun!
One of the greatest ways to make yourself feel amazing is to dance.
I have mentioned how dancing works wonders when you need to inject a little fun into your day, even if you dance by yourself at home.
But even better than that is to add the very important social element to it and go out.
Dancing connects you to your body in ways that are very primal. That’s why people still love to go dancing so much. Make sure that you have an outfit that you love and feel comfortable wearing, then pick a night to go dancing.
Don’t worry about anyone else, just dance until you feel satisfied with the night. Once you’re done, you’ll have gotten exercise, as well as shake off some of the darkness of the day.
Self Care Is For Everyone
I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to take time to ensure that your personal needs are met. Of course, I’m talking about needs that serve your highest good and not the self-destructive or unsafe over-indulgences. Self care isn’t something special reserved for the gravely ill, or those with too much time on their hands. It is, indeed, for everyone.
Week 7 Summary:
- Add more nutrients to your diet
- Get creative
- Massage
- Meditation
- Relaxation
- Visualization
- Dance
Self Love Program
Self-Love Week 1: 6 Simple and Affordable Ways To Start Practising Self-Love
Self-Love Week 2: 5 Ways to Build a Positive Relationship With Yourself
Self-Love Week 3: How To Treat Your Body With Kindness And Feel Happier
Self-Love Week 4: How To Have a Great Day Every Day? Wake Up Early To Avoid Panic and Meltdowns!
Self-Love Week 5: Start Living Your Best Life Now: Focus On Your Future, Not The Past
Self-Love Week 6: 5 Benefits of Positive Self-Talk For Life Change
Self-Love Week 7: How To Create a Daily Self-Care Ritual
Self-Love Week 8: How to Set Life Goals for Better Future After 40
Self-Love Week 9: How to Find Your Life Purpose in 5 Minutes a Day
This article was written by Zuzana Halliwell. I am not a doctor or health professional and cannot be held liable for the information written here. This article is meant to provide information about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. The content is based on my own personal experience and on information provided by medical professionals that is available to the public. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Do not use it as an alternative to seeking help from a medical professional.
@Feature Photo by Ravi Roshan on Unsplash
