When it comes to committing to self-care, everyone’s trying to get on board. But, following through?
That’s another story. It can be challenging to stick with your plans for staying healthy and happy when you’re thrown off course by work stress, family drama, or just choosing Netflix over everything else.
The good news is that there are steps you can take to make sure the time you set aside for self-care gets used for what it’s meant for: taking care of yourself.
Here are five tips to help you get started on sticking your efforts into practicing better self-care.
1. Set achievable goals your plan is no plan, then how are you going to follow through? Setting attainable goals is key to finding success in self-care.
Rather than promising yourself that you’ll go on a jog every day for the rest of your life, commit to running one mile three days a week.
Once this goal becomes a habit, add another day or mile. If running is no longer something you enjoy, find another way to get your heart rate up while you listen to your favorite podcast or read a book outside.
2. Get tech-savvy If scrolling through Instagram photos of healthy green smoothies is what helps motivate you most, leave that app open on your phone while you’re at the gym so you can push yourself that much harder to achieve your post-workout green smoothie.
3. Make it social Sure, spending Friday night in with a mug of tea and Netflix sounds nice, but why not make plans to get together with friends?
Posting on social media about the fun you’re having is an easy way for like-minded people to join in on the fun, too.
4. Track your progress Not only will keeping a log of how you spend your self-care time help you stay accountable, but it can also put things into perspective for you—you may find that you’re more productive than ever at work when you have an hour dedicated to writing every morning.
5. Make it a habit A ritual that’s only performed occasionally doesn’t really count as self-care—it needs to be something you do often enough for it to become second nature.
Schedule time on your calendar just like you would an important meeting or doctor’s appointment and treat it with the same level of importance.
Practicing self-care is a constant journey and there will be days when you fall short of your goals or don’t even set them in the first place. That’s okay —it happens to everyone.
Accept where you are right now and use those moments as opportunities to improve upon your lifestyle next time around.
