Self-care has become almost synonymous with Instagram. If you’re doing anything remotely related to mental health, body positivity, and self-confidence, you feel the urge to take a gorgeous snap and show the world. While there’s nothing exactly wrong with that, it does remove the focus from the real essence of self-care.
Believe it or not, those cute bath bombs, glittery journals, and gold facial masks are just one of the many facets of personal care. Looking after yourself is more practical than social media makes it out to be, and if you don’t have a thousand dollars to spare, it hardly matters.
Create Weekly Menus
Being mindful of what you eat is perhaps one of the biggest changes you can make in your self-care journey. As such, you must kick it off in the right direction by creating menus. Doing so minimizes the chances that you’ll slip right back into your old habits when you get tired of coming up with healthy meals on the spot.
Another benefit to creating menus is that you get to be strategic in discovering what you like and don’t like. Just because kale comes highly recommended by health experts doesn’t mean you have to love it–or eat it, for that matter. It’s an often overlooked fact of self-care that you should honor your preferences within a certain activity. Find fruits and vegetables you like and stick to them.
Address Your Bodily Pains
While there’s nothing wrong with saving money for expensive facials and salon visits, there is something awry about having money for those but not for a doctor’s visit. Remember that taking care of the inside is just as important as taking care of the outside, especially when it comes to your body.
If you feel joint or muscle pain, chronic headache, back pain, and digestive issues, don’t settle for a quick internet search to fix your problem. Contact a health professional and get the appropriate treatment. If you live in Utah, find the most reliable chiropractic services. A chiropractor can fix alignment issues in your body that develops due to accidents, sedentary lifestyles, and even an active lifestyle. Addressing your health issues should always come first because even a great hair day can’t help you much when you’re in constant pain.
Decompress Daily
You absorb a lot of information and process many emotions daily. A considerable sum of these could be negative or outright stressful. These make decompressing for five to ten minutes every day an important part of your self-care routine. How do you do this? Just get away from anything overstimulating, like your phone and television. Go to a quiet place, lie down, put your feet up, and take the time to breathe. Listen to ambient sounds if that helps. Something so simple can energize you and clear your mind enough to remain productive and positive for the remainder of the day.
Turn Off Your Alarm
Once or twice a week, preferably when you don’t have work, turn off your alarm. Allow your body to sleep for as long as it needs to. Getting quality sleep that lasts for seven to nine hours does a lot for your health. While you’re enjoying your ideal vacation in your dreams, your body is doing heavy work by repairing tissues, removing toxins, and fine-tuning many things that you need to be in good shape.
Improve Your Posture
Remember when you met someone with a good posture and you were so impressed? That’s a sign that you have to work on your own posture. Making an effort to keep your body alignment right has plenty of benefits, such as improved breathing, better self-confidence, reduced back pain, optimal digestion, and increased energy, among others. So, the next time you are slouched on your desk, sit up straight, keep your head level, and pull your shoulders back. You’ll look so much better in candid photos with a good posture, anyway.
Make It Simple
Self-care is simple, really. When you remove the extravagances that you see on Instagram, you’ll recognize that, at its core, it’s all about showing yourself the right kind of love. Take the time to smell the flowers, do some stretching, and laugh out loud at your favorite shows. And if you do want a bubble bath, don’t feel the need to post it on Instagram. Another self-care tip worth remembering is that you don’t need others to validate your health and happiness.
