Picture by rocketrictic
One of the questions I get asked the most is:
What do you do to take care of yourself? How do you deal with the stress of life, travel and, well, the recovery from mental illness?
I have blogged, podcasted and vlogged extensively and passionately about my favorite self-care tips and tricks, but I was curious to see what other writers and entrepreneurs do to show themselves some TLC.
One of the many things that I learned while reading through these beautiful self-care profiles was that self-care truly is for everyone! Whether you’re a mom, single, a city girl or a slightly crazy guy from Guernsey (google it!), taking care of yourself is essential if you want to live a good life.
So, enough with the excuses of “but self-care is not for me”, “self-love is too out there” or “I’m too busy take care of myself”! Take these 10 suggestions to heart and begin practicing self-care today.
Lisa Consiglio-Ryan of wholehealthdesigns.com
I wake up before the kids (usually 6 am), I breathe and meditate for 10-20 minutes and write in my journal to start my day. I have my favorite green juice, Beauty Remedy, by my side to sip. I feel connected this way; with my body, my spirit, and even with others. There is a vibration I feel, soulful, and nourishing. This self-care ritual helps me love myself up each day.
Marc Winn of theviewinside.me
First and foremost I focus on feeling great. That is the foundation of all my productivity and creativity. Great conversation, exercise and sleep are the 3 things that really make a massive difference to how I feel and I schedule these into my diary to happen week in week out. Whenever I feel my energy slip, I go straight back to religiously implementing my base processes for happiness. I feel great first, then work second.
Marthe Hagen of thefreedomexperiment.com and author of Feeling Good When Life Is Hard
If you have ever struggled with a mental disorder – like me – you will know that self-care isn’t just difficult – it is also life-saving. Slowly but surely I have learned to take care of myself by applying an economic principle to my self-care routine. What are the smallest and easiest things you can do for yourself that will give you the maximum self-care effect?
For me it’s lavender oil, sleepy time tea, dark chocolate and yoga. Lavender oil relaxes me, hot tea makes me feel safe, dark chocolate is for comfort and yoga is for focusing on something else. When I feel bad, these are easy things to do that make me feel disproportionately good and – ultimately by adding them up – save my life.”
Andrea Feucht of andreaworks.com
My self-care routine would look like this if I actually kept up with it: I’d start my day with morning stretches, just a few minutes, to wake up my body. Then I’d help my brain wake up with a bit of writing.
I’d commit to daily yoga of some sort and end my day with meditation. One of the things that’s really hard for me to keep up, but so helpful is no glowing screens after dark. Daily short journaling moments help me tremendously and when I just wan to to fill in the blank, I use prompts I found in these books: Q and A a Day: 5-Year Journal and The Happiness Project One-Sentence Journal: A Five-Year Record
Michelle Marie McGrath is a Lovepreneur & Self-love Mentor
Each morning and night I meditate, sometimes in the bath (one of my favourite self-love practices) and put my hand on my heart and ask “what do I most need from me right now?” Asking myself this question repeatedly has been life changing. I’m conscious of using only organic and good quality body products. When you treat yourself lovingly, then you naturally start to make more conscious decisions about what you put on and in your body.
I’ve become more diligent about the quality of food I eat, which is mainly organic. I’ve increasingly learnt to listen to my body and eliminated products with refined sugar in them and that has been amazing in terms of the mental clarity that ensued.
Currently I’m doing a morning practice of dry body brushing for 9 minutes whilst chanting along with this fabulous mantra of Liberation, ‘Har Makunday’ performed by the lovely Mirabai Ceiba. Try it and let me know how you find it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Pernille Norregaard of thedivinewriter.com
My favorite self-care routine is never setting the alarm clock. I try not to schedule meetings in the am, so I can sleep as long as I need to. I’m a bit of a night owl and I often work best in the afternoon and night. Not all night, but till about midnight. I know this to be true for many of my follow writers.
I learned years ago that the most important aspect of my functioning and doing awesome work is to get enough sleep. When I’m sleep deprived I get lazy and irritable. It’s not that I sleep all day. I usually wake up around 9 am, but I love lying in bed for half an hour getting mentally ready for my day and waking up slowly.
Beauty Remedy Green Juice
Yoly of YolyMason.com
Self-care was not a priority for me until my body let me know that when “she’s happy”, all aspects of my life are in harmony.
Now-a-days, right after grabbing my coffee mug in the morning, I will take a few minutes to meditate about how fabulous of a day it will be as well as taking a 15-30 minutes walk to clear my mind. Before signing off for the night, I do 15 minutes of relaxing yoga poses.
Claire Murray of clairesholisticpursuits.
Self care for me takes form in several different ways.
The physical aspects of self-care are eating loads of veggies and greens every day, eating a predominantly grain free, processed sugar free diet to keep my full of energy and healthy, gently moving my body every day: walking, stretching, riding my bike, living in the closest alignment I can to nature, as we as all beings of this earth and resting regularly, as I’m someone who needs a bit more down time than the average person.
The mental and emotional aspects of my self-care routine are made up of the following:
- Constantly reminding myself I am running my own race, and the differences in my life to the person next me to means it’s just impossible to compare us!
- Spending time in self reflection to understand what my strengths and triggers are.
- Setting an intention of how I would like to feel each every day.
- Guiltlessly putting myself first – always.
Diane Pauley of postgradolescence.com
Loving yourself isn’t an easy thing to do – by anyone’s standards. We take in our flaws so much that there’s literally no room to show love. But I’ve learned how to over time. Slowly, but surely, I’ve grown to see a beautiful woman staring back at me in the bathroom mirror.
Some ways that I show myself love are by speaking or writing down daily affirmations into my life. Whether they are snip-its of wisdom or good-feeling words, I always remind myself of how precious my life is daily.
I also know that I am most taken care of spiritually when I take that time aside to just be alone with my thoughts. It’s like a sabbatical of sorts. I either hole up in my apartment with some good books, go sneak off to a foreign city or take long walks and indulge in quiet serenity.
On the other hand, being that I am naturally an extrovert, I have to balance myself out. And I get most recharged or rejuvenated when I’m around friends and those people who inspire me most. I think of close friends like that as fellow light-sharers; they light a spark on the inside of me to be better.
Lastly, I show myself love through writing. It’s an escape for me, to write from a trove of stories nestled away in a secret chamber of my heart. I write poetry, fiction, true stories. I write anything that encapsulates what I’m feeling at that very moment. This is freeing to me; this is an expression of self-love.
Geri Kabala
I have to have my morning coffee in silence. If I don’t, my whole day is thrown off. My daughter cannot talk to me, the dog cannot come out, my future husband cannot talk to me. I need those 20 minutes to clear the cobwebs and get focused and jazzed for the day ahead. My four year old knows that if she interrupts me during my coffee she will have a Cranky Mom and no one likes a Cranky Mom.
Because I was so excited about their brilliant pieces of wisdom, I put together an infographic for you to download, print and share.
What are YOUR favorite self-care tips and tricks? Share them with us in the comment section.
So honored to be a part of your self-care list! I love a lot of these ideas which I need to implement a.s.a.p. Sleep, sleep and more sleep is huge! xo
Oh yes! (writing this with a huge yaaaawn….)
I adore these! Such great and inspiring words with such a diversity of experiences with self care. Just hearing how others are allowing themselves to take care of themselves is hopeful and a great reminder that we can all manage self care.
Absolutely. And I like the diversity. We can all find our own self-care routines and really see what feels good for us. It’s OK to do whatever it is that’s good for us and stop looking if it looks good on the outside.
Thank you so much for including me – and I loved reading about the other people’s self-care routines too! So inspiring.
Love, Marthe
Thanks for being part of it. I always love your way of writing, so much wisdom in your beautiful mind.
Totally love this post 😉 I never actively think about this but its awesome to read that u make it part of ur routine
I think it’s important to be intentional about these things, especially if you’re as hardworking as you are, Yasmine. 🙂
I love it that I am on this list. Thank you! There are some great ideas on here that I will experiment with. Keep doing what you do! Mx
I’m sure you’ll find a way to hack those other ideas too. 🙂
Anne-Sophie,
I am so glad I found your website and this post. Refreshment is at the heart of my own message at Refresh with Dawn Herring, so when I read this post, I knew it had to be shared, which I will do on Twitter and Facebook. I love all the great ideas these folks shared about how they take care of themselves. I noticed journaling showed up several times, which is also close to my heart. I am host of #JournalChat Live for all things Journaling on Twitter on Thursdays, 5 EST/2 PST.
Some of my favorite ways to refresh and take care are painting with watercolor, collage, reading, and journaling. I also take time to pray and meditate to tune in to my intuition and inner wisdom.
Thanks so much for sharing this life enhancing self care.
Be refreshed,
Dawn Herring