10 Steps To Self Care
Self care is an important part of being a successful adult and member of society. When you’re a kid your parents, teachers, coaches, and other authority figures take care of you but as you get older the responsibility becomes your own. Are you doing things that are healthy for your body? Are you overworked or over-stressed? Take a minute to self evaluate your life, health, and habits. Are you where you want to be? If not you may need to start practicing some self care, here’s how.
Step 1: Stay Hydrated
Close to 80% of the human body is made of water. Are you drinking enough of it? Take your weight in pounds and divide by two. That’s how many ounces of water you should be getting every day in order to stay healthy and hydrated. Staying hydrated helps your body in all kinds of ways like having healthy skin and nails, improved digestion, it helps with weight loss, and can increase energy.
Step 2: Eat Healthy
There are all sorts of factors that go into eating healthy like proper portion sizes, eating your fruits and veggies, and not loading up of cookies every day. Personally, I just try to eat a nutritious balanced diet and limit the junk food and sweets that I eat.
Step 3: Exercise
There are all kinds of ways to get the exercise that your body needs, so find something that you enjoy doing. You may want to start by trying out a few different things like a yoga or dance class, lifting weights, joining a rec team, or using fitness machines. Everyone is different so find one or two things that work best for you!
Step 4: Practice Good Hygiene
Sometimes when we get busy, our personal hygiene suffers. We decide to push off showering an extra day, or forget to wash our face before bed. Keeping up with good hygiene practices is important and can even help you to destress. Take a hot bath, or do a face mask to treat yourself after a long day and make sure you are practicing good hygiene.
Step 5: Get Enough Sleep
Adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night. Try to stick to a sleep schedule that allows your body to get enough sleep and be well rested for the next day. Lack of sleep can lead to health problems like weight gain, high blood pressure, mood changes, and weakened immunity so make sure you get your beauty sleep!
Step 6: Find Ways to Destress
A certain level of stress is healthy, it keeps us alert and on top of our deadlines. However, too much stress can be a major problem for our health, social life, and academic or work life. Find something that helps you relieve stress, it could be working out, watching a show, or even taking a bubble bath.
Step 7: Spend Your Money Wisely
Money is a source of stress for many people which is why it’s important to watch your spending habits. This can be as easy as asking yourself, “Do I really need this?” or “Will I use this frequently or will it become clutter?” before buying things. Asking myself these questions has saved me a lot of money recently and I’m glad I adopted the habit.
Step 8: Manage Your Time Well
Do you find yourself double booked? Do you struggle to meet deadlines? If you answered yes, you may need to work on your time management skills. I recommend using a planner to write down meetings, deadlines, and any other events you may have to better organize your time.
Step 9: Make Time For Friends & Family
Making time for those closest to you is very important because those are the relationships that make you happy. Spending time with loved ones can also help to reduce stress. Sometimes they know you even better than you know yourself so don’t be afraid to lean on them for support.
Step 10: Adopt A Hobby That Makes You Happy
Everyone should have a hobby that they like to do. It allows you to express yourself and meet people who share the same interests as you. If you don’t have a hobby yet, try something you’ve always wanted to do!
Self care is important and not something that should be put off. Try these ten steps to improve yours!
