The Importance of Self Care [25 Self Care Ideas]
Let’s face it most of us spend HOURS taking care of other people. Whether it's at our job, serving our family in day-to-day tasks, helping friends, or volunteering. A majority of our time is usually spent doing stuff for others. Don't get me wrong taking care of our families, working at our jobs, volunteering and other activities that require taking care of people are good things. We get life and energy from helping others, but we also need to recharge in order to be our best selves.
The point of engaging in self-care is to fill yourself back up again. It can be extremely difficult to constantly be taking care of other people if we are doing nothing to take care of ourselves in return. The fact of the matter is we will take better care of people, do our jobs more efficiently, have clearer mental health, be less stressed, be happier and more fun to be around if we do some sort of self-care every week. Self-care doesn't need to be time-consuming, elaborate or expensive. Maybe it's just spending an uninterrupted hour doing something you enjoy. If you are feeling on edge, grumpy, anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, exhausted or simply not yourself it is likely some self-care could do you some good and recharge your emotional battery. Here are 25 self-care ideas: some are free and some are not, but my hope is this would just give you some ideas so you can come up with your own ways to care for and nurture yourself.
25 Self Care Ideas:
Go on a walk
Read a book
Drink a cup of tea
Watch your favorite TV show or movie
Bake a sweet treat
Go to the park and lay in the grass and watch the clouds
Do crafts: knitting, quilting, sewing, scrapbooking etc.
Call a friend
Go to your favorite coffee shop
Go on a date with your significant other
Physical activity of any kind indoors or outdoors (hiking, yoga biking, golf, tennis, volleyball)
Play lawn games ( frisbee, corn hole, ladder golf, badminton)
Color (Adult coloring books are all the rage right now for good reason!)
Eat a square of dark chocolate
Spend 20 minutes on Pinterest looking at cool and inspiring ideas
Have a glass of wine on your patio
Read the Bible
Write in a journal (bullet journals are really cool - check them out on Pinterest)
Listen to music
Play some music
Go to the mall and window shop
Do a meditation/mindfulness exercise
Garden
Take yourself on a date
Take a bubble bath & then give yourself a manicure or pedicure
I hope this week you can schedule some time for some self-care. Take note on how it helps you. Hopefully, it will help slow down and feel happier and less stressed.
Warmly,
Chelsea
Encounter Counseling offers in-person counseling in Grand Junction and telehealth counseling state-wide in Colorado including Denver, Boulder, Ft. Collins and Colorado Springs.
