How to Begin Your Daily Self-Care-5 Ways to Implement Self-Care

When I truly started my self care journey. I felt overwhelmed, with all the things we were “supposed to do”. I did not know where to begin OR how to make time for everything. Now I needed to make time for myself. It was a lot. I knew I needed to start somewhere. Where I was mentally, I needed to start small. I started to make the time for me in the morning. I set my alarm about a half hour before I usually would get up. I made myself a cup of coffee, grabbed a book and sat outside. I practiced this every day. Some days, I will be honest, were hard, but I grew through it. This is still a practice I do everyday. I make time for myself in the morning. I now read more at night, but I still start the day with me.

We get a lot of comments and questions based around “how do I start working on myself”. I get told that “my schedule is too crazy to make time for me” Listen I am not here to tell you that I do not understand. I do. I preach this and still find some days where I forget to leave my office. Now these days are just few and far between because I know the importance of making time for myself. I have learned the benefits of making time for myself. I have also learned how to teach the beginning stages of how to start making time for yourself.

I know your time is precious so I will make a few quick tips that you can start today.

Create a schedule for the week or today and list the things you need to accomplish including YOURSELF on the todo list.

Focus on just 5 to 15 minutes a day on doing something for yourself.

Prioritize your schedule, meaning remove unnecessary distractions such as technology when you can.

If you are a morning person, make time in the morning for you and a cup of coffee. Yes if you are an evening person, then set some time aside for you and maybe a good book. Again begin with just 5-15 minutes a day.

This is what I think is a big one, stop making excuses. We spend more time making up reasons why we don’t make time for ourselves, then actually making time for ourselves. If you planned to work out for 30 minutes and because of unscheduled events you know only have 15 minutes. Don’t just throw away the idea of working out improvise, is there some kind of body moving activity you can do for 15 minutes?

I know I said 5 ways, but I am going to add another by saying just start today. Not tomorrow, not next week today. Ask yourself, today “How can I make at least 5 if not 15 minutes for myself “TODAY”? I promise you got this!