Happy New Year! Welcome to my first post of 2019. I hope that you had an amazing New Year’s Eve and a wonderful New Year’s Day.

Practicing self-care has become an important part of my daily routine as an adult who’s nearly 30! I’m on a journey to successfully figure out how to look after myself, but in a way where I can use self-care to enjoy the things I love in a positive and productive way, and to share my tips with you along the way. I’ve touched on self-care in a few of my previous posts, and expect to read lots more! Even if it’s just for a few minutes or even for an hour, I’m making sure to add self-care throughout my day, every day. Even if it’s just sitting down for a little while, picking up my book and reading a few pages. It’s allowing me to take a few moments out to relax, enjoy and look after myself. You can make self-care happen too this new year with my 5 powerful self-care tips.

“Self-care is any act that nurtures your head, heart and body.” – Suzy Reading

There are many different forms of self-care. An article I read on The Mighty lists 5 different types of self-care for your mental health, which include physical self-care, emotional self-care, psychological self-care, spiritual self-care and professional self-care. Now in this post I’m just listing a few tips on how you can make self-care happen this year, but it’s very fascinating when researching self-care and that there are so many different types of self-care that you can add in to your daily lives. You can read the article herePractising definitely worth a read. Self-care means anything from saying no to something, eating healthy, exercise, taking that much needed afternoon nap, grabbing a book or complimenting yourself. It’s about doing the things that are beneficial to your health and wellbeing.

Make Self-Care Happen This New Year

Start by making more time for self-care activities this New Year. Never think that practicing self-care is being selfish. Self-care is an every day part in our daily lives that we should take seriously and allow ourselves to do. There is a big difference between selfishness and self-care. When we practice self-care we are doing something to make ourselves happy and taking time to relax, we are not causing harm to others. Self-care helps to rest and re-energise the body and mind whilst doing things that Practising to benefit our physical and mental health, so we feel less stressed and happier, allowing ourselves to give more time in general not only to ourselves, but to other people and other things and projects that we care about. Being selfish is lacking consideration for other people. So never think that by spending some time practicing self-care means that you are being selfish!

Start The New Year By Setting Some Boundaries.

Setting boundaries is about doing what we feel is right as a person, for ourselves and for other people. It’s about knowing when to say yes and no and looking after ourselves in the process, maybe saying no to extra responsibilities if it’s going to affect our health and wellbeing. If we are in an uncomfortable situation at work or a conversation is starting to cause anxiety, never feel that you have to stay. Respectively remove yourself away from the situation. I’ve said yes to many things in the past and it has caused me anxiety and unhappiness. This year I am setting myself some boundaries and implementing this to my self-care routine throughout my day-to-day activities, whether it’s at home or at work.

When you start to feel overwhelmed, set some boundaries, so when that overwhelming feeling occurs, implement a self-care technique, even if it’s just getting some fresh air. Self-care isn’t just about reading a book and taking a nap, like I mentioned above it’s about doing things that are going to benefit the mind and body.

Write down each morning when you get up and each evening when you go to bed the things that you are grateful for and has made you happy.

I’ve actually touched on this recently in a blog post which you can here. I personally feel that this is an important and essential self-care technique to do. You don’t necessarily need to do it morning and night, you could just do one or the other, but writing down the things that we are grateful for and also the things that have made us happy, whether it was something that happened today or last week, or even something that is still yet to happen, by writing these things down, it can help to boost your mood tremendously.

After a long day, it’s easy to think about all of the negatives that may have happened or have negative thoughts cross your mind. By having a list of the things day to day that you are grateful for and that has made you happy, can make you appreciate so much more the things you have got, have done and will be doing. It can put in to perspective what you have already achieved and outweigh those negative thoughts. By focussing on what you have and what you are grateful for, it produces more goodness for yourself to be more aware of what you have got and to not focus on what you haven’t got.

Put Down any distracting technology and do some of the things you love.

Although technology is an amazing and marvelous thing, having a break from technology can feel wonderful, especially when technology can become quite toxic, for example on your computer or phone, online on social media. I am someone who gets very frustrated and engrossed with different things that are happening on social media. I may not necessarily respond, but I am frantically scrolling through trying to find out what’s going on or what other people are saying about something. I love technology, but I must admit it’s nice to have a break now and again from it.

Sometimes it’s good to just switch it all off, the TV, computer, game console, phone, any technology you can think of. Instead I like to make myself a hot chocolate, put on my comfy pjs, and sit and read. Or I like to go for a walk in to town, connect with nature, or I like to grab my acrylic paints, paintbrushes and a canvas and paint. I’ve also started making my own jewellery! Or another thing I love to do is to cook something new or bake some delicious treats.

It helps us to reconnect with the things we love, whether that’s by taking a walk, reading a book, doing some arts and crafts, the things that don’t revolve around technology, which can be very beneficial, and for me personally it’s helping me to realise how much I love painting and making things and giving my mind and body a rest from technology. It’s very refreshing!

Get some fresh air.

I find that when I step outside to take some fresh air, whether it’s to go for a short walk or to just stand outside for a few moments, the sounds around me, the freshness of the air on my skin and when I breathe in, is invigorating. I feel energised and refreshed. My focus is purely in that moment. I’m more aware of my surroundings, which in return brings my attention to that present moment, making worries and stress fade. It’s amazing the places I’ve found that are local to me, only just up the road, that I wasn’t aware of before. Just by going out to get some fresh air.

I love being amongst nature. I find it relaxing and soothing hearing all the sounds around me. Whether it’s by doing some gardening, going for a walk or picnic or just standing or sitting outside for a little while. A little while back now I woke up during the early hours of the morning, I took my recorder outside with me and I stood there in silence listening to the sounds of nature around me waking up. I’m not saying that you’ve got to get up early in the morning, but focussing my attention on what was happening in that precise moment, was truly something special. I felt relaxed and happy.

Get plenty of sleep.

On the NHS website, it explains reasons why lack of sleep is bad for your health. It says that lack of sleep can leave us feeling grumpy and not working at our best, which believe me, I know far too well! Lack of sleep can do damage to our health. Which is why this New Year, I want to get myself into a sleep routine that is right for me. I admit there have been many nights where I’ve gone to bed early hours of the morning, staying up watching TV and scrolling on my computer. But when I don’t get enough sleep, my body and mind knows it! Sleep is good and essential for physical and mental health.

Technology can play a key part in disturbing our sleep, when staring at our phone or computer just before we want to get to bed. Instead maybe try a few fun things to do, such as read a book, try out some adult colouring books (which I absolutely love), or you can grab your journal and write those things down that you are grateful for and what has made you happy, like I mentioned above.

This year I am prioritising sleep. If I am feeling tired during the day, I allow myself to sleep. I snuggle up in a comfy warm blanket and I let my body and mind rest. Sometimes a nap is just what I need. I also aim to get at least 8 hours of sleep a night. A few things I like to do in order to have a good night’s sleep, is to read a few chapters of a book, make sure that if the central heating is on, my radiator is turned down so my room isn’t too hot, and I like to relax with my favourite skin care routine and my favourite products just before getting in to bed.

What are some of your favourite self-care techniques? Are you adding more self-care to your daily routine this New Year?

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