Simple self-care habits are easy to cultivate. But you’re probably thinking, I don’t have time for it!
The truth is, all you need is five minutes! Self-care can mean something different to each of us. And no matter what you do, it needs to refill your cup so you can continue to take care of everyone else.
So exactly how can you cultivate better self-care habits when you have a demanding schedule? That’s what my chat with Rachel Letham was all about.
Rachel shared tips that will help you cultivate some simple self-care habits based on the season your life is in. She works with women who are already on a personal development journey but they help to boost their momentum to achieve their goals.
“Everything that I do has kind of what I like to call a sprinkling of self-care or the backdrop of well being alongside it.“
– Rachel Letham
How can you make time for self care even when you’re busy?
We all have the same amount of time. It’s what we do with it, that counts. So instead of scrolling through social media and binge watching on Netflix, you could be doing something else even if just for five minutes.
Start to build in some really positive powerful habits. It’s actually about deciding what you want to do with your time and how you can nourish yourself in that time.
As a new mom, Rachel mentioned she knows that she needs to do certain things in order to be able to be that best new mom for her baby boy.
So it’s about setting priorities as well. Understanding how you can best build some self care habits that you want to do, not that you think you should be doing. This allows you to leverage your time even if you’ve just got the smallest amount of time.
“Self-care is giving the world the best of you instead of what’s left of you.” – Katie Reed
What small self-care habits can you cultivate?
It doesn’t have to be about taking a bubble bath and locking the door and being in there for an hour. It can be small things that don’t necessarily take too much time or too much money.
Focus on doing the things that you want to do. So it might be that in a certain week, you want to do more of one activity. And then when you’ve done with that for a bit of time, think about more of the stuff that you really love doing. And what do you want to do less of so that you have more time available.
So sometimes we have to say no to things. We have to take things off our list in order to have more time for self care. One thing you can also do is think about things you enjoyed doing as a child. That gives you that almost kind of heart centered nourishment. So it’s about tapping into some of those things.
How can you incorporate self-care habits into your daily routine?
Self-care doesn’t have to be the same thing every single day. It’s flexible so it can provide what you need. There are certain things that you should just be doing almost naturally because that’s you as a person and what you need like starting your day with coffee or reading a book before going to bed.
In Rachel’s ebook, Self-Care for the Seasons, she talks about mixing up your morning drink or taking a break with a warm cup of coffee or tea. If you are open to variety, try mixing it up for a week. This will get your brain used to trying something new instead of heading for the default option.
Also start thinking about “non-negotiables” you need in your life. Think about the things that you need to do daily to feel good and that make you happy. Try things like journaling, going for a walk, call a friend or family member.
There is a weekly wellbeing checklist that comes with Rachel’s ebook to help you stay on track. You can use the checklist to track your non-negotiables to make sure that you’re doing the things that are important to you, so that at the end of that day, you feel that life is working for you.
Non-negotiables are the things that are really important for you to do to feel your best. And by having them on a checklist and checking them off every day, you can see that your habits are building up. You will also start to realize that you haven’t done some things that are important to you and you are not fulfilling your self care habits as you should.
Just remember to give yourself some grace when things don’t go as you would like. Try again the next day, and the next day, and the next day.
How can you make sure you stick to some type of self-care routine?
Use the technology available to you. Set reminders on your phone and when it’s time, go for a walk around the block, get yourself a coffee or sit and read a book or whatever. This may not work for everyone; it could just be that you have an hourly sort of reminder on your phone to sit and breathe, think about your posture, or have a glass of water.
But try and mix things up because quite often the reminder will pop up and you will just look at it and go, okay, and keep doing whatever you’re doing. So you need to have the right motivation to be able to change your behavior.
Every day, ask yourself what you need to do to make you feel and be the best version of yourself? Then track what you do with the weekly well-being checklist. After about a week, if you’re not necessarily feeling great, ask yourself these questions. What am I missing? What hasn’t been happening? Am I not getting enough sleep? Maybe I’m not drinking enough water. I’m not having healthy meals.
It’s about coming back and tapping into what you need to do from your list of non-negotiables. Rachel has her clients stick it up on the wall or stick it on the fridge. Put it where you can see it every day and be reminded that’s what you need to do.
You may go two or three days, and then you drop off with your self-care habits. Be forgiving when you miss a day and get back on track! The well-being checklist will help reinforce your self-care habits and give you a feeling of satisfaction. There’s something really good about checking things off and being able to see the progress.
When you get to the end of a week, you can review your progress. And then the next week you can build on that! Then you can understand what things are really helping you. Sometimes you might not have achieved a certain thing on your list. So you go, you know what, that’s either not important, or I need to think of a different way to do some habit stacking.
So it’s a really good way of keeping a watch on things and helping you stay focused on your self-care habits. Life is busy and we need reminders every so often. You don’t always have the same amount of time. So it’s about having a bit of flexibility when it comes to self-care. But it’s also about not doing things in a certain way because you think you should be.
Think ahead a bit and plan ahead. But also give yourself a bit of grace and space. Sometimes you have to just be happy with one thing instead of trying to do five or six things. You’re just going to end up being more stressed out because you wished you had done something. You just have to have that element of flexibility.
To hear all of my chat with Rachel and get more details on the self-care tips tips in this blog post, tune in to episode 49 of the podcast. Click below and tune in on your favorite platform.
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