In the second in this 3-part series on creating more self care in your daily life, we’ll turn our attention to rest and rejuvenation. And if you missed the first article in this series on sensing and connecting, you can catch up here.
Self care is about daily wellbeing. It’s not about what your wellbeing might be tomorrow or next week, or how it was last week or last month. Just like you can’t eat healthy food just one day a week and eat junk the other 6 days and expect your physical health to be great, you can’t engage in self care one day a week or only once in a while and expect it to have a real and lasting benefit in your life.
Self care is a daily thing.
I also proposed in an earlier article on tailoring your self care routine that the way to find the best self care for you right now — the kind that will have a positive and immediate impact on your life — is to explore what’s missing for you right now.
Resting and Rejuvenating
Right now, is your life so full now you are overwhelmed or simply can’t fit another high energy activity into it? Many of us have been so busy with life, with work, with family, busy with busyness that we’ve exhausted ourselves.
If this is what’s been happening with you in your life, then activities that bring, rest, reflection and rejuvenation are what you need.
Sometimes self care means taking it down a notch and slowing down. Tune in to what it is you need and if it’s rest and rejuvenation, try these on:
Sleep
Sleep more, sleep better. Get rid of all technology (except a lamp and bedside clock) from your bedroom and make it a tranquil place for sleep and rest. Make your sleep routine at the end of the day a peaceful one, rather than falling into bed in a heap. Take a short afternoon nap if you need one. Before 3pm and for about 15 – 20 minutes may be all you need to regenerate and revive.
Meditate and journal
Meditating and journalling can introduce tranquillity and contentment into a busy, busy mind that can’t shut down. Buy a meditation CD if you need that guided experience, or use a candle to focus your attention on for 5 – 10 minutes every morning or afternoon (or both). For journaling, let go of any preconceptions you have about it, invest in a pretty journal and write in it every day.
Read
There’s nothing like an engaging book you can lose yourself in. Instead of watching television in the evenings or the weekends or losing time online, get into some great books. You might want to read up on inspirational people by reading biographies or autobiographies, or lose yourself in a gripping fiction book. Read for the pleasure of it.
Unplug
Turn off the TV, your tablet, your computer, your phone, your handheld devices for the weekend or if you can, take a workaweek day and turn off to tune in. Unplug and tune into you. Listen, notice, engage your senses, play au naturale. The world won’t end if you don’t check in, respond or post an update for a few days.
Just Be
Take 10 minutes in the afternoon when you’d normally be working and sit outside in nature. Just breathe and notice what’s going on. Luxuriate in being outside, doing nothing.
No cost
None of these activities cost a single cent, and none of them take longer than 20 minutes a day – some only need half that time. There really is no excuse for not doing them.
Give at least one of these a try – do one every single day, even if you have to schedule it into your diary to make sure it happens. Notice and enjoy the difference in how good you feel.
And stay tuned for the final article in this 3-part series, where we explore inspiration and exploration as a form of self care.
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