How and why you need to start building out your self-care routine

Photo by Adam Wilson on Unsplash

Hello my loyal readers, 

I can’t believe we are at the end of February and about to enter into March.

This month has been really exciting on the blog, mainly because I got to finally share my proposal story. It  was my most visited day to my site ever, which was a very cool takeaway from it. 

In my Self-Care = Self-Love post last week, I discussed how loving yourself is the root of taking care of yourself. I wanted to follow up that post with how you can discover what you need in regards to self-care, and how to work it into your daily life. 

There are three things you will need to ask yourself when building out your very own self-care routine. 

1) What do you need to work on?

When it comes to taking care of yourself you have to figure out what you are needing to tend to. What are you struggling with? What part of your life is feeling off center and out of your control?

“It may be one thing or it may be many things. What is important is that we recognize it when a part of us is screaming for help and we act on it. This is what self-care is all about.”

In my experience when we have a moment of clarity, or hit a breaking point in life, there is typically one primary area that stands out from the rest. This is often when we may be experiencing a crisis of a sort in life.

Its also possible that you feel like everything needs to be tended to, and that your overwhelmed because you don’t know where to start. To me it has always been helpful to look at the Six Dimensions of Wellness and think about each area of my life.

I was first introduced to the six dimensions of wellness both in my college health class, and health psychology courses. I had never thought about health in a holistic way before. I have also seen wellness wheels that include financial health in them, which I agree with since our finances are a huge part of our lives.

Photo by Clarion University

2. How did you get here?

Its important to acknowledge how we allowed ourselves to get to this point of needing to prioritize self-care. To take ownership we had in creating the version of ourselves we are now, and how we are going to approach taking care of ourselves in the future.

I think the easiest way to discover the how and why, is to write it all out. Journaling is a powerful tool to discover our inner dialogue and voice.

Sometimes when I am feeling really lost and confused with what my body or soul is needing, I just write it all out. Whatever comes to my mind and not overthink it as I go. Typically this has always been a great insight into what area I need to work on and address first.

I would also suggest talking with a sweet friend of yours who knows you really well and that you talk with often. Sometimes the ones closest to us see things from different angles, and maybe have noticed something that seems to be off with you.

3. When will you find the time?

Lets be real, nothing in life is ever going to stick if we do not find the time for it.

So often we say “I just don’t have enough time.” Even yours truly has said this before when it comes to certain things in life, including this blog and practicing yoga. However, the truth is that I did not always make time for it.

We all have the same 168 hours in a week. Every single person on this planet has the same number of hours in the day and week as you do. The hard part when building out any routine or habit is us deciding within ourselves to actually do it and follow through on it.

“How come when it comes to following through for others we are there 100%, but when it comes to ourselves we put things off or eliminate them completely?”

When things get busy in life I hear how people eliminate one of their self-care activities, like working out first. It is the first thing they take off their plate. When in all honesty, this should be the very last thing you give up.

By putting others first you put yourself on the back burner. Like with cooking things on the back row of the stove, this means you get overcooked, burnt, or forgotten about entirely. When you get to this point you have nothing amazing to add to others, you are just simply there and not in your best form.

I hope that through this post you are able to start working through and defining your own self-care routine.

It is so important that we keep what we do to recharge and take care of ourselves as sacred time, because it is.

Know that is is okay to say “no”, and that by putting yourself first you are saying “yes” to so much more.

Until next time,