Self-care is a hot topic and the spa is a booming industry but I want to explain why self-care is more than a spa day. Don’t get me wrong, I love a spa and once spent a week at Champneys!

But the point I want to make in this blog is that twofold. Firstly, self-care is different things to everyone and secondly, small regular self-care is more beneficial for your mental health and more practical to incorporate into your busy life than a spa day..

What my friends said self-care is

I asked my Facebook friends of ways they self-care and here is what they said.

Jill Gardner – Recognising the negative voice in your head isn’t you. And disowning it so you can be the real you ❤️

Samantha Heywood-Cox Take time to relax each day and say thank you to your hard working body

Anita Davenport Always eat nutritious food and sleep.

Esther Nagle Realising that what is one person’s ideal self care routine isn’t necessarily yours. Deep, slow breaths make most stressful situations and sleepless nights less stressful and exhausting. Forgive yourself for mistakes you may or may not have made. Realise that the critical voice in your head isn’t telling you the truth. A good night’s sleep is a great physical, mental and emotional reboot. Yoga and walking in nature are powerful ways to connect to everything that is important as well as being good for physical and mental health

Carolyn Arnold Doing anything for pleasure and not out of duty.

Clare Farthing Quarterly spa days at Chewton Glen Hotel & Spa. A girl can dream!!

Julie Shepherd Setting time aside for me and also saying ‘no’ to things I really don’t want to do.

Nicola Huelin Here’s a blog I wrote with ideas of 92 things you can do for self-care that take less than 10 mins and are totally free

Belinda-Jane Hunt Meditate. Be kind. Forgive.…Listen to your body.

Leslee Serdar A W. A. A. M. List (What’s amazing about me) list

Keeps the self esteem up!!

Self-care can be preventing stress

I once read that one of the biggest causes of stress is things that are broken or don’t work around the home. I agree! I’ve had a wobbly kitchen door for a long time and kept screwing it back in but it was never properly fixed and became irritating. Anyway it eventually fell off! So then I had a door-less cupboard which looked a bit strange. I had it fixed and for a couple of days kept admiring it. Who would have thought that a door could bring happiness?

And here are some practical ideas of self-care from me:

Back up your computer. It can be a real trauma to lose your photos or work
Store your photos in Dropbox or similar. Protect your treasure memories
Online shopping – need I say more!
Organise your wardrobe. Only have things that fir in your wardrobe so you don’t spend ages finding something to wear and feel bad about things that don’t fit right now
Sort out your finances.
Dal with letters ASAP
Keep a calendar/diary
Unsubscribe from emails that don’t add value to your life
Subscribe to something that adds value to your life. That’s my 21 Day Wellbeing Challenge
Batch cook. Freeze some, eat some. Cost effective too.
Declutter your house, create space
Declutter your car, enjoy driving
Declutter your loft, never panic about finding the Halloween stuff again
Declutter your garage, yes you have 4 bicycle locks already
Declutter your Facebook friends
Declutter your Instagram
Get your books on kindle
Keep water and snacks in your car so you can always maintain your energy levels

And the best thing about self-care?

Self-care, like rest, is time for you. You enjoy your time and your life. To feed your joy. So it’s important to know how to do that! My theory is that people with a passion in life are very lucky.

I recently went to a of prey centre and the passion the handlers have for their birds is amazing. They look them with love and one keeper said to his bird ‘come to daddy’! How wonderful to have an interest you never tire of and you love to bits. Not quite self-care but you get my drift?

When we understand what gives us joy, what makes up feel rested and happy. We can do it as often as we like 🙂

The list of things that gives us joy and makes us happy could be endless and they could be small things. Easy to do. Cheap or free. You’ve just got to experiment and find them. Children as very good at this. They are usually open minded and experimental. They try different clubs and hobbies to see what they enjoy and what they like the most. Children usually go where the fun (for them) is!

Take a little time for self-care today

What are you going to do to nurture and nourish yourself today? I would love to hear about it in the comments or share this blog with someone you care about so they can self-care before their next spa day.

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Head over to the ‘free resources‘ page on this website. You will find a range of free gifts to help you manage your mental health, wellbeing and happiness.

2 Comments

steve on October 15, 2017 at 8:59 am

A great list and advice Honey – thank you for sharing
Carrie Eddins on October 16, 2017 at 8:27 am

Honey loved this post:) I practice quite a few of them, and there are a few lovely new ones; like batch cooking, and doing things out of pleasure not duty 🙂 Thanks Honeyx

Why self-care is more than a spa day