How I Practice Self-Care

Earlier this year, I shared what I learned on my day off from work. And to say it opened my eyes is an understatement.

Essentially, it was the first time I intentionally took time off from my day job to take care of myself.

And while my friends were happy I did, they were shocked because I worked that much.

Usually when I take time off, I’m going somewhere, but this time, I arranged my day off with no plans to travel and having a mini staycation was so nice!

Since then, I’ve been focused on taking time for myself more often and it’s been interesting to find different ways to unwind and take care of myself.

Aside from the obvious sleep and exercise, here’s how I practice self-care currently:

CLEAN / ORGANIZE

I know this sounds weird, but cleaning, purging and organizing has been very therapeutic to me. I’ve been buying way less so the purging part hasn’t been as hard. For some reason, owning fewer things feels fantastic! I feel like I can breathe more and stay in a peaceful state of mind. I’m ALL about that quality over quantity life now so expect to see a lot more outfits featuring higher-quality items and investment pieces in the future!

MUSIC / PODCASTS

Listening to music and singing in the shower is my favorite thing to do as of late. It’s just nice to stand there, let the warm water run over you and sing! Like Tony Robbins says, “Motion creates emotion!” Whenever I’m down, I just turn on some music and sing my heart out and I feel much better. In the car, I’m the off-key star performing on the main stage, ha!

I love learning and aside from personal development books, podcasts are my favorite resource to learn from. Mornings are so nice as I ease into my day by listening and learning while I get ready for the day.

My favorite podcasts are The School of Greatness by Lewis Howes, The GaryVee Audio Experience by Gary Vaynerchuck, and The Influencer Podcast by Julie Solomon. I also recently added Creative Slide by Jon Acuff. If you have any podcast recommendations, please let me know!

SKINCARE

I love, love, love playing with skincare products and tools, especially with new-to-me brands. Recently, I just purchased the Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask and the Gua Sha Facial Lifting Tool to experiment with. If you ever need to be forced to do nothing, just put on a face sheet mask and there goes your 15-20 minutes of self-care!

ENTERTAINMENT

I’ve been playing video games and watching movies and television shows a lot more often, WAY more than I used to in the past. And I seriously forgot how fun it is to escape reality through these forms of entertainment. To be emotionally invested in the characters themselves and get lost in the storyline is really fun and almost therapeutic.

Speaking of, I was very emotionally invested in Jack Ryan, so much so that I binged on the entire season in three days and am impatiently waiting for the next season to come out. If you haven’t seen it, trust me. After you watch the first season, you’re going to be just as impatient as I am for the second season!

READING

Aside from The Sword of Truth, I’m currently reading Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. I bought his book about two years ago and am just now getting around to reading it. I know, I guess I just had to wait for the movie to come out to finally start reading the book, ha!

At the end of each night, to wind down, I listen to the Bible and read my daily devotion. Right before I drift off to sleep, I pray and talk to the Lord. And if I’m being honest, this part of the day gives me so much peace and has helped so much with my stress and anxiety.

Taking care of myself even more so for these past several months has been so nice. And truthfully, it’s why I haven’t posted much here on the blog or on Instagram. I feel like I can’t produce and share my best content if I’m not mentally, physically or spiritually strong enough to handle it.

For example, I tried writing a post on Sunday to go live on Monday and nothing came to me. I felt like my brain was drunk and words were falling out of my head. Turns out, I hadn’t taken one day of rest in the last seven days. No wonder I felt like I was slurring my words through the keyboard!

Practicing self-care is the beginning to living your best life.

Remember…

For the rest of this year and into 2019, I’m definitely going to practice self-care to a point where it becomes a normal way of living.

Tell me, how do you practice self-care?

I appreciate any ideas you throw my way so feel free to leave a comment below!