How I Practice Self-Care

Someone told me 2018 was the year of self-care. Given that January was five weeks, it truly gave everyone more than enough time to practice new habits and adjust to positive lifestyles. Speaking of which, I noticed an aggressive trend of fitness, traveling, and beauty. In a sense, those three components are practically the pillars of self-care. They focus on taking care of your health, fueling your passion, and feeling good about yourself. How could I possibly not want to apply these trends to my life? I think we can agree that we all want happiness but sometimes aren’t quite sure how to apply the requirements to our lives.

How could I possibly be happy and feel good when I have XYZ to worry about? 

Well, I’ve decided to quit playing the victim of my own problems, that will never go away, and started practicing those ironic cliché mantras you hear “happy go lucky” people talk about – which are on to something. Instead of promising myself by the start of new year, month, or hell even Monday, I will practice on being better, I decided to just start now. Now is the best way to start anything. So, I wrote a list of ways I practice self-care with small summaries on how I truly apply it to my life. I hope you gain one or two ideas from my list and apply them to your everyday routine.

1.     Beauty First

[face masks, no makeup, skin care regime, getting my nails done, accepting my looks & feeling just as good about myself with or without makeup on (still working on that)]

2.     Sitting in Silence

[every time I’m in the car I always listen to music, although it’s just as good for the soul, so is sitting in silence. I allow my mind to wander and think about things and reflect. It’s quite therapeutic.]

3.     Reflecting on My Day; Telling Myself I’m Proud of Myself

[instead of thinking of the day as just “good” I think about the obstacles I overcame, and how I handled myself. I tell myself how I proud I am for having a good day at work or if I made someone laugh. It makes me feel good knowing that in my own way, I succeeded that day]

4.     Repeating Affirmations

[I go on Pinterest a lot and read positive quotes. Whenever I start to think of bad things or start to second guess myself I practice self-mantras. Mine lately is:

“I am strong, I am powerful, I am beautiful, and I am in control.”]

5.     Praying

[I wouldn't call myself religious, but I do have faith. I thank God every day for my family, my health, and my blessings.]

6.     Surrendering to My Emotions

 [I allow myself to feel what I feel. I don’t call myself stupid or dumb thinking a certain way or crying when something bothers me. I am allowed to feel what I feel, regardless how big or minuscule the problem is. The moment I accepted my emotions, the less crazy I started to make myself feel.]

7.     Self-help books

8.     Spending time with Loved Ones

[Like truly hanging out with friends who make you laugh, like really really laugh and friends you can be real with. Spending time with your mom, sister, boyfriend, or whoever brings joy to your heart.]

9.     Buying Myself Flowers 

[I love flowers. I love the way they smell and look in my room. So every once in a while I'll go out of my way and spend a little extra on a nice bouquet for myself.]

10.  Fantasize About My Dreams

[I often listen to music or daydream about a lot of scenarios, sometimes worst case scenarios. I play them out in my head like a scene in a movie and come up with ways on how to solve them. By doing this, without realizing, brought stress just the thought of it actually coming true. So now I just daydream about the best case scenarios and my dreams and how I will flourish with the positive outcomes.]