7 TINY Ways To Take Better CARE Of Yourself In 2025 | Self Care Habits

Often in life, the biggest changes start with the smallest steps. Good decisions bring good decisions. Before long, those seemingly small choices become healthy habits that lead to real, sustained change. And so today, I want to look at what are some of those high-impact, tiny changes that you can make to dramatically improve your life. So here we go. These are seven tiny ways that you can improve your life in 2025. I want to begin with one that can make a huge difference when it comes to your health, and that's to add more color to your diet. Coming over the holidays, I feel like it's safe to say that for many of us, our diets probably haven't been the best recently. But one really easy way to take care of your physical health, to improve your diet, is just to add more fruits and vegetables to every meal that you consume. Fruits and veggies are high in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber. They're foods that help us to look and feel our best. They help with digestion, gut health, even the appearance of our skin, our energy. I feel like that's stuff that we all know, we've heard before, we've even experienced the benefits of ourselves. So this is just my little reminder to you to make sure that you're actually getting in those fruits and veggies. I find that a very simple way to do this is just to set a goal for yourself of adding a fruit or vegetable to every meal that you consume. So if you're having eggs and toast in the morning for breakfast, add a grapefruit or a couple clementines. If you're having chicken and rice for dinner, add a vegetable like broccoli, peas, or asparagus. Of course, the one thing to keep in mind with this is to really root the full benefits of adding fruits and vegetables to your diet. You really want to focus on consuming a variety. So try to eat the rainbow. Different colors offer different nutrients to your body, and so by consuming a variety, you'll be able to really just take advantage of all of the different vitamins, minerals, and all of the goodness that various fruits and veggies offer. All right, but then another important way that you can take care of yourself in the upcoming year is to make the time. In the past couple of years, I've discovered something important. I used to treat my life like I didn't have control over my time or my schedule. I had wished for more hours in a day, more days in a week, as if I hadn't chosen everything that was on my plate. But the thing is, I had. But what I also had was the power to change them. I had a real light bulb moment when I realized that we have time for the things that we make time for. So often I hear people say things like, I'd love to do this, but, or I wish I had the time for x, y, z. I've said those things myself. But more often than not, what's holding us back isn't a lack of ability, it's a lack of priority. And so here's my encouragement to you. If there's something that you've been saying that you want to do or you want to do more of, maybe it's reading, maybe it's getting up earlier, maybe it's taking a class, switching careers, prioritizing family dinners, it could literally be anything. If there's something that you've been saying that you want to do, figure out what it is about your life that you need to change or to rearrange in order to make it happen. You have the power to control your time, your schedule. So stop waiting for more hours of the day just to fall in your lap. That's just not going to happen. And start making the changes that you need to in order to make your dream life, your dream schedule a reality. It really is a small but powerful mindset shift that can make all the difference. Okay, but then I want to touch on a really practical one and that's just to soak up the sun. Seasonal depression is a real thing. And during the short, dark days of winter, we need the sunlight more than ever. We all feel the benefits of the sun whenever we step outside. It helps boost vitamin D production, improves our mood, our energy levels, helps regulate our circadian rhythms. But all too often during the colder months, we retreat indoors to avoid the cold weather. The problem is this is one of those decisions that actually hurts rather than helps us in the long run. And so here's my challenge to you this winter. Brave the cold. Even just a few minutes spent outdoors can have a tremendous impact on your energy levels, your mood. Go for a short walk outside, sip your tea or coffee on a sunny corner of your porch, your balcony. Of course, bundle up appropriately, but I promise you're going to feel better for it. If you want to take this to the next level too, choose to embrace the cold and engage in activities that can only be enjoyed during winter. Go skating, go skiing or cross-country skiing, snowshoeing. There are so many fun winter activities that can help you to get outdoors, to enjoy the benefits of the sunlight, soak up some vitamin D and get active as well. But then something else that I'm just a huge believer in is making magic from the mundane. There are two ways to go through life. Breathing through the small things in order to get to what matters or treating the small things as if maybe they're what really matters. With one, the small things in life are a chore. With the other, they're a joy and it really all comes back to your perspective. And so this year, why not choose to make magic for the mundane things in life and choose to approach them with a sense of wonder and gratitude? This all comes down to making a habit of embracing and enjoying the little things in life. So as you're enjoying your morning coffee or tea, take a few seconds to savor it. Focus on your senses, appreciate the smell, the flavor, take in your surroundings. As you're cleaning your house, play music, call a friend, appreciate the before and after of your work. Whatever it is that you're doing, practice finding beauty in the ordinary. I promise if you do this consistently, it's going to give you a more positive, joyful outlook on life. Then let's talk about a small way that you can improve your productivity, your intentionality going into the new year. And that's to revamp your routines. If you've maybe fallen out of your routines a bit over the holidays, I know I'm guilty of this one personally, or maybe you just want to add some new healthy habits to your routines, remove some bad ones, whatever the case, it's going to be a great step to take. Something that I like to do whenever I feel the need to switch out my morning routine, my evening routine a bit, is to first write out what a typical morning, evening, we'll take morning as an example, write out what a typical morning looks like for you right now. The screen time, the hitting snooze, all of it. And then without judging yourself for what your current morning routine looks like, write out what your ideal morning looks like. Be realistic, you can't work out, shower and eat all in 20 minutes. And then compare the differences and see if there are maybe a handful of small, realistic and practical changes that you can make in order to enjoy a more peaceful and productive time. Maybe you need to get up earlier to put your phone on the other side of the room so you're not tempted to hit snooze. Maybe you leave a book on your bedside table so you're encouraged to read first thing. This truly can look like so many different things, but see if there are some small tweaks or changes that you can make in order to revamp your routines in 2025 in order to embrace more productive and healthier habits. Okay, then I want to touch on something that's near and dear to my heart. That's to reconnect. You guys, the internet, social media has made the world so much smaller, which is the coolest thing, but unfortunately it hasn't made us closer. Despite it being easier than ever for us to communicate with loved ones, to stay in touch even with distance, we're missing something. So if lately you've been feeling lonely or disconnected from friends and loved ones, I want to encourage you to take time, make the effort to reconnect. And if you're able to trade in those digital interactions for in-person, face-to-face, life-on-life, heart-to-heart conversations, meet for coffee, grab dinner, plan a trip. And when you get together, don't just settle for surface level interactions. Go deep, share what's bringing you joy, your struggles, what's really on your heart. Those are the conversations that really fill up our emotional and spiritual cup. But then also too, I want to say, if you're hearing this and just thinking to yourself, I don't really have friendships, relationships like that. Maybe it's time to go out and make some new friends or become closer with people you're already connected with. I know making friends as an adult is harder, but trust me, it's worth it. So be friendly, strike up a conversation with a stranger, join a club, attend church. Chances are there are other people in your area who are looking for the exact same thing. All you need to do is to find them. And I want to wrap up with one final way that you can drastically improve your life in 2025, and that's to lower your screen time. The average American spends seven to eight hours on screens every day, and it has an impact. Too much screen time increases our stress levels, hinders our ability to focus, impacts our sleep at night, distracts us from our goals. So if you're wanting to foster deep connections with others, to read more, to be more productive in the morning, to find more time in your day, I want to encourage you to take a hard look at your screen time. And you can check it right on your phone, although, of course, that doesn't take into account time that you spend watching TV on your tablet, but it can help give you an idea. If that number is more than you'd like to admit, I want to challenge you to, this year, spend less time looking at your phone, your computer, your tablet, your TV, your devices. Of course, I know that's easier said than done, so a couple of things that can really help are, first, begin simply tracking your screen time. You can also ask for accountability from a partner or friend. I love the idea of making this into a game. Take screenshots of your weekly screen time and have some friendly competition to see who was able to get the lowest screen time, maybe find some kind of prize for the winner. But then something else that can help too is just becoming more aware, checking in with yourself regularly when you're on your phone so that you don't get caught going down a scrolling rabbit hole. Lowering your screen time is one of those big changes that's really made up of thousands of tiny decisions to either put down your phone or to not pick it up in the first place. It can be hard at first, so many of us are addicted to our phones, but as we build new, more productive patterns, it gets easier and easier. I think that's where it makes sense to end this conversation, just with an encouragement. Every small decision you make matters. The more good decisions you make, the more they matter. They can completely transform your life if you let them. So let's start today and make this the year of caring for our minds, our bodies, our souls well. But now, I want to hear from you. Where do you want to start? What are the changes that you want to make to your life in the upcoming year? Be sure to let me know in the comments. And as always, friends, thank you so much for watching, for being here. I'm wishing you all the best with your goals, and I will see you all again very soon. Bye, friends. Bye.