How to Create a Self Care Routine

Self care has been all the rage lately, and there are good reasons why. In a busy world where we end up spending so much of our time and energy on our jobs, family, and friends, we sometimes neglect to spend time on ourselves. Investing time and effort in your own well being is vital; it will help stop you from feeling stressed out and stretched thin.

What is self care?

There’s a kind of misconception that self care is something indulgent or selfish. While it certainly can include indulgence, that’s not what’s at the heart of practicing self care.

The World Health Organization defines self care as: “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a health worker.”

There’s a tendency to interpret this definition as pertaining to physical health, but self care benefits both physical and mental health. After all, your brain is part of your body. 

In essence, self care means taking time out to address and mitigate stressors, whether those stressors are emotional or physiological in nature, and there are a lot of ways to do that. So many that there’s one or more that’s perfect for you.

Benefits of self care

The benefits of adopting a self care routine are pretty simple. Self care reduces stress, helps manage depression and anxiety, and improves general quality of life. We are happier, more confident, and we live longer when we stop to take care of ourselves.

Making self care into a routine helps us remember to practice it frequently, which increases those benefits. So if you’d like to:

• Foster good mental and physical health
• Manage stress
• Recognize your own emotional needs
• Nurture and sustain relationships
• Achieve balance between different facets of your life

Then adopting a self care routine is a great way to go.

Keep in mind, effective self care looks different from person to person. What’s best for a coworker might not work at all for you. So the key is to try things, and keep trying things until you find the one that gives you the kind of peace and relaxation that you deserve.

Ways to practice self care

Take time out for yourself

Let’s start with one of the most difficult self care strategies. Making sure you take time out of your day for you. Even if it’s just 10 minutes a day, it will make a difference.

Plan this time. Define it. Set a timer if you need to. What do you do during this time? Well, that’s up to you. Maybe it’s indulging in your favorite skincare routine, or putting on some wonderful body butter after you shower in the morning. It could also be time to read a book, or just to sit.

It doesn’t really matter too much what it is, as long as it’s something you find fulfilling and that you enjoy doing. It’s the act of setting a time that’s all yours that matters.

Care for your space

People have different ideas of what a space is. It can be your entire home, a garden, a room, even a corner of a room. It can be your car. Whatever it is, it’s a space where you feel calm, happy, and at home.

Taking care of that space is important. It makes you more likely to spend time there. Take time to tidy it. Fill it with colors you like and objects you love. Light a scented candle to set a relaxing and happy mood. 

Maybe you don’t have a space picked out yet. Choose one. If you love to cook, it may be your kitchen. If you have a hobby, it can be your studio or workspace. It can be your bathroom, where you take a bubble bath at the end of a particularly hard day, or your bedroom, where you sleep at night.

Pay attention to your physical needs

Sure, we all know that we need to shower and brush our teeth, eat, drink, and sleep, but paying close attention to the cleanliness and health of your skin and hair matters. Doing this can help prevent infection and disease, but perhaps more importantly, it forces us to pay attention to our bodies, to listen to what our bodies need. This is something a lot of people don’t make time for, and it’s so important.

Make sure you have hygiene products that are a joy to use. Soap or shower gel that smells awesome, lotion that’s great to put on, skincare products that make you feel like you look your very best. This way, you’re going to look forward to using them. A soap or scrub that you really love turns a routine shower into a treat.

Taking good care of our bodies is a great way for us to put ourselves first.

Adopt a hobby

Hobbies kind of force you to take time out of your day or week. Hobbies also have great benefits for our mental health and good mental health supports good physical health.

Hobbies help to eliminate stress, clear the mind, and boost mood. Creative activities also give you the opportunity to exercise the problem solving part of your brain, and to express yourself.

Expressing yourself is self care. You’re condensing some idea or thought that you have about yourself or related to yourself and creating it in a form that’s available for others to see, taste, touch, or hear. Because of this, creative acts require that we spend time with ourselves, and listen to ourselves.

If you don’t already have a hobby, there’s a lot to choose from. We have a lot of DIY craft kits to get you started making soap or other personal care products.

Connect with community

Connecting with our community is an essential part of self care. We are not solitary animals; we’re social by nature. Engaging socially with other people helps us to feel less alone, less isolated. Feelings of isolation create stress, and stress has a tremendous impact on our physical health.

During the pandemic, it was difficult to maintain some of these connections to community because we weren’t always able to see people in person. Now that we’re returning to normal, we have the opportunity to connect again.
If you’re nervous about socializing, that’s okay. Each of us has social needs, but those needs vary from person to person. Maybe you only need a few core social connections, or maybe you need dozens of people to be in touch with regularly.

One of the ways to help ease back into socializing is to create a structured environment to socialize in. Something with a start time, and end time, and a specific activity. Craft parties are a great way to do this, and we have craft party kits available to make those craft parties easier than ever. Read more about Why You Should Throw a Craft Party.

Practice intentional relaxation

We might think of time spent not working as relaxation time, but so often those times are filled with other tasks, or even just worried thoughts. Some of us are woefully out of practice when it comes to relaxation.

Treat relaxation as a skill. Use your self care time to intentionally create an environment to help you relax, and then, well, do something relaxing. Read a book, practice your favorite hobby, meditate, write in a journal, or just sit. You can even nap if you want.

So often we have time that we call relaxation time, but don’t know how to spend that time. This is a great time to figure out the best way to spend your relaxation time. Find something that offers happy thoughts instead of worried ones. Find something that brings you joy. Find something that allows you to banish worried thoughts for a while. Those things will still be there in an hour.

How do you make time for self care?

Sometimes we set aside time for self care, but we fail to prioritize it. It gets bumped down the list by other, seemingly more urgent tasks until suddenly it’s bedtime. It’s time to start putting yourself first.

First, find what time in your schedule can be taken back for yourself. Maybe this is time spent watching television or reading news. Sometimes there are automatic downtime activities that we think relieve stress, but actually only distract us for a few minutes. Sometimes they can even be stressful. Find 10-30 minutes (or more) to do something for yourself, and schedule it. You can even set up a reminder on your calendar to make sure you remember it.

Then, set a timer. You no longer have to worry about how much time you’re taking out of your day, or watch the clock while you take care of yourself.

Then, do whatever helps you feel more like yourself. This doesn’t have to be unproductive time, though there’s nothing wrong with unproductive time. Rest matters. But if it’s challenging for you to spend time not doing something, make yourself a delicious snack that will give your body the nutrients it needs. Tidy and care for your space. Work on your novel. 

When your timer rings, you can return to your regular routine.

But where will you find the time? Here are some ideas:

• Use a break at work. If you have a lunch break or a 15 minute break that you don’t normally take, take it. Don’t just eat a sandwich while reading emails. Stop working. Leave your desk or workspace. Take a walk. Read a book.
• Enlist others. If you’re a parent, set up reading time with your kids. That way your kids will still be supervised and engaged, and you have time out to read for yourself.
• Use the morning or the evening. Many of us have time in the morning or the evening that we can spend taking care of ourselves. Wake up 10 minutes early and then take the time to moisturize the skin on your body. Take 30 minutes right before bed to read, write in a journal, or engage in a skincare routine. 
• Make a date with friends. Scheduling an activity with friends and adding it to your calendar makes it harder for you to forget or to reschedule. Don’t just say you should get coffee with someone; set a day and a time, and write it down.

Ways to help others care for themselves

It’s hard to take care of yourself sometimes, but having people around who encourage you to take time out, or who facilitate that time, can be really helpful.

Once you’re doing well at taking care of yourself, you can reach out to friends and family and start helping them set up self care routines. There are a lot of ways that you can do this.

• Get them something for their space. Find something that you know they’ll love for their home. If it’s someone who’s passionate about cooking, get them a cookbook, or a pretty container, or some great quality spices. Give them a vase (bonus points if you give it with flowers in it) or a rug or something that will make their space more pleasant. Give them a homemade candle in their favorite scent.
• Make a date. If your friend or family member is someone who seems perpetually busy, invite them to do something. Give them a specific date, time, and location. Not only does this require them to set aside time, but it also reduces the amount of strain on their already overloaded mind. Do something fun, relaxing, and not work related.
• Lend a hand. We see folks who throw chore parties for new mothers. They come over and help out with laundry, dishes, and cleaning while mom gets a nap or a shower. You don’t have to wait for a friend to have a baby, though. If someone’s lawn is overgrown, come over and mow. If a friend mentions that their laundry is out of control, come over and help. People often won’t ask for help with these things because failing to get them done on your own feels shameful. Offer instead.
• Give personal care items. If you know a skincare addict, giving them a brand new product to try will definitely encourage them to take a few minutes to themselves. It’s even better if you make that new product yourself! You can sit down and talk to them, tell them about the ingredients, and really introduce them to a new product in a way that you can’t get from a label or a website. Even if your friend or family member isn’t a skincare addict, everyone loves a handcrafted bar of soap, a lotion bar, or a handmade shampoo.

You may not be able to make others take time out for self care as easily as you can make yourself, but you definitely can encourage it, help open up their schedule, and give them the tools they need to engage in self care.

Remember, self care does mean good, nutritious meals, time outside, regular exercise, and basic hygiene, but it’s also more than that. Self care also means taking care of your mind and your brain. Take time to acknowledge yourself, express yourself, and indulge yourself. You’ll see the benefits in no time.