25 Self-Care Ideas to Practice Today

Hello, everyone out there. How's it going? Welcome back to my channel. I'm out of breath because I just hurried up real quick to try and sit down and film this video because I just have a few minutes. Hope you're all doing well. Welcome, welcome here. Today, I wanna share with you 25 self-care ideas. Perhaps you can select one or two of them that really resonate with you that you think would just feel really good for you to start to do today or sometime later this week. I think that self-care is so important. And the thing too is that there's so many different ways for us to practice self-care that sometimes we don't even necessarily think about. Things that don't always come to the forefront of our mind when we think about self-care, right? I think sometimes we think self-care means taking a bubble bath and painting our fingernails. And it can mean that sometimes, but there's actually so many different ways for us to really care for ourselves. And so I wanna share with you 25 ideas and I wanna hear from you as well. Let me know in the comments below one of your favorite ways to practice self-care or what self-care means to you. Let me know in the comments below. So let's get started. Number one is to tune in and simply ask yourself what it is that you need right now. This might sound really simple, but this is a practice that we can start doing really easily at any time of day. You can do it literally right now if you wanted to, or you just stop, you take a moment and you just ask yourself, is there something that I feel like I need right now? Do I need to stand up? Do I need to stretch a little bit? Do I feel like I need to move? Am I hungry? Do I feel like I need to make a phone call this evening and talk to a friend I haven't spoken to in a while? Or it could be any manner of things, but just simply asking ourselves what it is that we need right now by just tuning in for just a moment or two is such a wonderful way for us to align our actions with the needs that we have in any given moment and to care for ourselves better in that way. Number two is to practice self-compassion. And if you're not too familiar with what self-compassion is, really it's just the practice of treating yourself with care and with kindness. Imagine the way that you care or would care for a child, right, the way that you would treat them, the things that you might say to them or to a friend who's feeling down or discouraged, imagine the things that you might say to them. And self-compassion is taking that same approach, but with yourself. One of my favorite self-compassion practices that you can do right now that is so easy to do, you can do it anytime, is to put your hand on your chest or over your heart and it might seem a little weird, but really what you're doing is just that really gentle touch brings you into the moment a little bit and it makes you feel that sense of security, that sense of self-compassion, where if you're feeling overwhelmed, if you're being hard on yourself, if you're feeling stressed or angry or self-critical, doing this is a great way to just take a moment to be kind to yourself and say things like, hey, it's okay, it happens to everyone. Another kind of big component of self-compassion is recognizing the humanness in all of us, our kind of collective humanness and knowing that we're not alone. The things that we go through, the troubles we experience, we're not alone in them and hey, it's okay. And please know that this takes time, it takes practice. We can't be masters of self-compassion with just one moment of doing it, but I do invite you to try to practice a little bit more self-compassion if you're just feeling down or if you're being hard on yourself. Number three, make yourself a nourishing meal, something that makes you feel really good, something that maybe there's a recipe that you know that you love, that you love the taste of and that just makes you feel so good. And in particular, things that we wanna focus on here when it comes to really nourishing ourselves is things like making sure we're getting adequate protein and fiber and fat and complex carbohydrates in a meal that we are making. But also the flavor part of it is really important too, making sure that it's actually really satisfying and tastes really good too. So if you haven't yet today, make a nourishing meal for yourself, one that you take the time to really prepare and you can sit down and enjoy it and just feel really good. Number four, just a continuation of that point there is to eat something that you want without any guilt. Another way that we can care for ourselves is to actually honor the needs of our body. If we want something that's a little sweet, if we wanna enjoy ourselves with friends, if we wanna eat anything, it doesn't even matter what it is, if there's just something that we desire, we gotta let go of that guilt and we gotta allow ourselves to just enjoy it and to feel good about it and that's the end of that because nutrition is a big part of how we nourish ourselves but so is the enjoyment factor, the satisfaction factor, they call it. Number five is to eat mindfully. So this is important here too. When we eat mindfully, what we're able to do is we're better able to slow down, we're able to really fully experience the food and be present with the eating experience but also what we're able to do when we eat mindfully is we can pick up on our hunger and our satiety cues a lot easier as well. I have a whole video on intuitive eating if you wanna learn more about this but it is such a great way for us to tune into ourselves, listen to our bodies better and enjoy our food more when we slow down and we're really present and we're eating mindfully. The next point I wanna talk about here is to, this kind of goes along with eating mindfully but that's to savor your morning ritual, whatever that is. Maybe it's morning coffee or your morning tea or maybe you make a really yummy latte in the morning, whatever it is, just take a moment, maybe tomorrow or some point this week to say to yourself, I'm gonna actually really slow down and I'm gonna savor this tea or this coffee, I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna fully immerse myself in the experience of enjoying it and I'm gonna give myself that time, I deserve it. Number seven is to stop weighing yourself and there's actually a few reasons for this but one that I want to highlight here is that weight is not the ultimate indicator of health. There are so many things that make up what makes someone healthy and constantly weighing ourself just adds stress and just adds that element of feeling like we're unworthy if we're not at a certain number that we are looking for. So instead, shift your perspective to think about some of these things as indicators of health. How well you're sleeping, how much energy you have through the day, how you feel physically after you eat a meal, the type of nutritious foods that you're eating on a consistent basis, how much water you're drinking, how healthy your relationships are, how well you're managing stress and how happy you feel overall in your life and other things too like positive self-talk, how you treat yourself. Number eight is to hydrate and to care for yourself by drinking eight cups of water especially if you're really feeling like you haven't been having a lot of water lately then this might be the point for you that resonates with you the most is just, oh yes, I need to make sure that I drink enough water today. Number nine is to get outside for 15 minutes at least or more. Being outside, especially if we can be around nature, I've talked about this in so many different videos, is so good for our mental health. It's such a great way for us to disconnect even if it's just a walk around your neighborhood or just wherever you live, just getting outside just to get some fresh air is a wonderful thing that you can do to care for yourself. Number 10 is to move your body in a way that actually makes you feel really good. If you have any sort of exercise routine right now that you're trying to stick to and if you're finding it's maybe a little difficult or you're not quite sticking to it all that well, I just want you to just take a moment and consider some of the ways that you could move your body even if it's just for a few minutes in a way that you actually really love. This could be some stretching in your living room, it could be some jumping jacks, it could be dancing in your living room which I've also talked about before is one of my favorite things to do. Just turning the music up really loud and dancing, love doing that. Or maybe it's getting outside for a walk or putting on your running shoes and going for a jog. Maybe you just feel like you have the energy to do that. Or doing some body weight exercises, whatever it is, just move in a way that makes you feel really good in your body. Number 11 is to take 10 deep breaths. Simple as that. Just take 10 long, slow inhales and exhales for yourself so that you can calm your nervous system a little bit if you need to and just relax, be present and then continue on your merry way. Next is to slow down your bedtime routine. So I gotta say, it's so easy for us to rush at the end of the day. We're just rushing through taking off our makeup, we're brushing our teeth really quickly. But something that we can do that actually feels really, really good and has that extra element of self care is just slowing things down, maybe taking an extra five minutes to really be present with taking your makeup off and massaging your skin with moisturizer and thoroughly brushing your teeth, maybe even flossing your teeth. Just really taking the time to slow down that time routine so that you can get into bed in a little bit more of a calmer way instead of being really, really rushed. Which brings me to my next point and that is to take a really slow, mindful shower or bath. And this could be in the evening perhaps, but could also be first thing in the morning. So again, a lot of times for some of us, depending on where we work, what we do, sometimes the mornings can be really hectic and rushed and we just quickly have a shower, we try to get dressed really quickly and head out the door. And this isn't always possible, but if you're able to, try just slowing down your shower a little bit and just taking that time for yourself sometimes. I know everyone's different, everyone's lives are different, everyone's lifestyles are different, but maybe for you, you find that being in the shower is just a really great time for you to actually have that uninterrupted you time. And see if you're able to lengthen it just a little bit, even by just a few minutes, five minutes of just slowing down and really savoring that shower. My next idea here for self-care is to take the time or schedule the time if needed for you, for some you time. So you might actually have to add this into your schedule or request help from your partner or a friend or family members so that you can take a little bit of you time to do some of the things that really bring you joy. Maybe this is journaling, maybe it's reading, maybe you wanna catch up on a book that you've been reading or maybe it's literally nothing at all. Maybe it's just nothing, you just need some time by yourself. But make sure that you take that time for yourself because when we are constantly burdening ourselves with caring for others, doing everything for others, using up all of our internal resources to care for others, we deplete ourselves more. So make sure that you're taking that time for yourself. Next one here is to reflect on what is most important to you and I actually highly recommend that you take out a journal to do this. If you wanna learn all about journaling and getting started with journaling, I do have a whole video up on that so I will leave that link below. But take a few minutes here and really you might wanna set aside a few minutes here to reflect on what's most important to you in your life, what are your values, what is most important to you, why they're most important to you, so that's really important as well, the reason why, and how, kind of brainstorm, how you might be able to start to add some more of those things into your life. Maybe there's a few things that are really important to you but they've kind of been on the back burner for whatever reason and brainstorm some ways that you can bring those back to life again and start to align your actions with the things that matter to you most. Something else that can be helpful here is to consider what are some obstacles that might be getting in your way here, what are the barriers that are kind of blocking you in that way. Next, this is a simple one, but also a very, very valuable one and can totally change how we feel in just a few moments and that is to express three things that you are grateful for. Gratitude can be very transformative when it comes to taking our state of mind from one that's lacking, scarcity, feeling like that not enoughness or not having enoughness to a place of abundance and being really aware of the things that we do have. So write out three things that you are grateful for and if you want to, to give a little extra here, is to write out why you are grateful for those things. That can help add a little extra oomph to the practice. Next is to tidy a space, to reduce some visual clutter here so that we can help to clear our mind. So I'm not suggesting here that you should just go clean your entire house, but perhaps you can think of a particular area in your home. Maybe it's your bedside table, maybe it's your bathroom counter, maybe it's your kitchen pantry, maybe it's a spot in your living room or anywhere else in your home that's just feeling a little cluttered right now and by clearing that up, by organizing it, you know that you would actually feel a lot better. Maybe this weekend or something, you can take a few minutes to just do a little bit of decluttering and some organizing and putting things back in their place. My next point is to do something that makes you feel really good. So what I'm talking about here are the things, the hygienic things that sometimes we just haven't done in a little while, like trimming our nails or getting a haircut or shaving our legs or anything, whatever it is that you know actually makes you feel really good. And on top of that, something else that can also be great here is to invest in some new underwear, maybe a new bra that makes you feel really good, maybe you haven't bought some of those things in a really long time and you just feel like, gosh, actually now that I think about it, that would actually be really nice. Maybe it's been months and months and months or even longer that you've gotten yourself a new top or a new sweater and doing so would just make you feel really good. So these are some things to just consider. Nurture your relationships. So this could be really, really simple. You know, obviously the relationships that we have in our life can be complicated, but having healthy relationships in our life is actually really important for our mental health and just having social connection that makes us feel good is really important. It is a way that we care for ourselves. Making time for connecting with loved ones, you know, quality time with loved ones, listening to each other and communicating with each other, these are all really important for us. Whether it's sending a nice text message to someone or making a phone call, right, reaching out to someone, these are little things that we can do to just nurture the relationships that we have in our life because sometimes they do take a little bit of effort. It takes some effort for us to make sure that we are nurturing those relationships. Number 20 is to curate a healthy social media environment. So, you know, a lot of us, most of us spend a good chunk of our time during the day and during the week on social media, whether this is Facebook or Instagram or here on YouTube. And, you know, the accounts that we follow, the things that we are seeing can definitely affect our mental health and taking the time to go through the accounts that you are following and making sure that they're ones that actually support you, that make you feel good, that maybe align with your values, whatever it might be. Sometimes we just have to do a little bit of pruning here is really, really helpful. It's something that I have done in the past and recently I'm always kind of just checking up to see how, you know, how is my social media environment making me feel and making some tweaks as needed. And on that note, my next point here is to disconnect from screens every once in a while, whether this is for an hour or telling yourself that you're gonna turn off your phone at some point in the evening and, you know, you're kind of gonna just turn things off for a little while. This is really important, again, for our mental health and reconnecting with, you know, the real life, the people in our lives, getting outside, those kinds of things. Number 22 is to question your limiting beliefs. So these are beliefs that we have that tend to hold us back and we all have them. Maybe you can think of some of them right now with certain thing that you've always wanted to do or you've thought about doing, but you just have a lot of fear about it or, you know, any other area of your life. A limiting belief is a belief that we have about ourself that holds us back, that says we can't do it or we're not good enough or we're gonna fail or we're gonna get made fun of or we're gonna be rejected or, you know, you name it, and we all have these. There have been a few that I've had to work through as well and just being aware of them is a great way to practice self-care so that we can question them, you know, really just observe them, look at them objectively and see if they're things that we can kind of turn around and work towards overcoming. There's so many different habits that we can adopt for reducing and managing our stress levels, but one of the most important things that we can do is to actually take a moment to really pinpoint what are our main sources of stress in the first place? What are the things that are actually contributing to our stress levels? And are they things that I can look at and, you know, brainstorm ways to either eliminate or reduce, you know, that particular thing? Pinpointing the sources of stress in our life is definitely one of the best ways that we can actually work towards reducing them because we know exactly what's causing it as opposed to just general practices that might not be getting to the root of what's making us feel stressed out in the first place. Number 24, almost at the end here, is to set boundaries for yourself or to just know your limits when it comes to what's too much for you, what you know is something that you wouldn't wanna do or you don't wanna do, what does and doesn't align with your values, and the things that, you know, that are best for you to say no to. And lastly, number 25, my last idea that I wanna share with you here for practicing self-care is to listen to your intuition. And if you haven't yet seen my previous video all about how to listen to your intuition, I really encourage you to do that. There's six strategies that I'm talking about in that video to help you better tune into your kind of inner wisdom. I will leave that video linked below. But it's really something that takes practice. It's a bit of a skill that we can develop when it comes to kind of listening to our intuition better and doing what feels right for us in life in a variety of different ways. You know, in business, in personal life, in relationships, even when it comes to listening to our body, when it comes to food and eating intuitively. But intuition can really provide us with many valuable insights. And learning to listen to our intuition better is so important. So definitely something to learn more about. Again, I will leave that video linked below if you wanna learn more about that. So that is it for today's video. Thank you so much for watching. 25 Ideas for Self-Care. I hope that you found this helpful and you can take one or two of them and put them into practice today or sometime this week. And I really wanna hear from you. If you have any particular self-care practice that makes you feel really good that I didn't talk about in this video, please leave it in the comments below. Let me know. And I will see you all in the next one.