Self Care Tips - Part 2

Meditation

This one took me a while to adjust to; even after starting my journey to becoming a yoga teacher, meditation didn’t come easily to me. As someone who is constantly on the go and in a rush to start my day, consciously implementing the habit of taking fifteen minutes every morning for myself, completely changed my life.

It doesn’t have to be in the morning (although I can confirm this is without a doubt the best way to start your day), you can work it around your schedule. Take yourself to a quiet place, download a meditation app or search for guided meditations on you tube and set the tone for your day.

The benefits of adding meditation to your self-care routine are endless; you will be more readily available to show up for yourself and others, it will leave you feeling grounded and centred and will reduce the anxiety inducing ‘chatter’ that enters your mind as soon as you wake up.

If there’s only one tip you take from both part one and two of this blog; meditate, every day.

Evening Routine

I used to be the person who would stay up till 3am scrolling mindlessly through Instagram battling my tiredness. Honestly, the thought of going to sleep when there were so many other things I could be doing, really irritated me, revenge procrastination.

Oh, how times have changed, my evening routine now consists of; journaling, some gentle yoga/meditation, a mint tea, a book, and being in bed at a reasonable hour. This ‘wind down’ time has become crucial to my daily self-care, like many of us at the moment, my life is hectic. We have all become consumed with work from home, still going to work, home schooling, home workouts and all of the stresses that have come alongside covid-19.

It is impossible to go straight from this sense of chaos to bed, and still expect a good night’s sleep. You will be tossing and turning, running through tomorrows schedule and planning the next shopping list. Even when you do fall asleep, you’ll wake up agitated and continue the exact same cycle. In order to fall asleep peacefully, you need to put the chatter in your mind to sleep first. Meditation is the easiest way to do this as it will advocate a sense of calmness in both the body and mind, ensuring a good night’s sleep and the ability to wake up ready for the day ahead.

Technology Detox

So that leads me on to my next tip, a technology detox. As if we haven’t got enough going on in our minds on a day-to-day basis; social media and our phones in general, add fuel to the fire. With a constant stream of tropical holidays, people renovating beautiful homes, happy families, work emails, and endless messages to get back to, it’s easy to understand why we find it so hard to switch off. Instead of taking time out of the day for ourselves, we sit and compare our lives to the generally speaking unrealistic lifestyles that are portrayed. Remember, no one has the perfect life, and what you see is a hand-picked selection of moments that people want to share.

I admit, this is easier said than done and once you start scrolling, the chances are you wont stop. The only way to combat this is to put the phone down. You can incorporate this habit into your life however works best for you; that might be allowing certain windows of time for yourself to reply to messages/emails throughout the day, you might set aside one day of the week were you’re on a technology ban or my favourite method is to put my phone down half an hour before I sleep. This allows me to dedicate the last part of the day to myself and to be alone with my own thoughts.

Self Development Books/Audio

Prior to this past year, I don’t remember the last time I picked up a book. Studying made me never want to read again, that was until I started my yoga teacher training. Due to the amount of theory involved in the course, I had no choice but to start reading again, only this time; I fell in love with it.

The trouble is, when we are studying at school, college, university etc, we are often forcing ourselves to read and learn about things that truly we have no interest in. So, in actual fact its often what we are reading about that makes us never want to reach for a paperback again. Recently, I have incorporated reading into a part of my self-care, instead of gorging on Netflix marathons I indulge in books, reading about things that interest me; self-development, spirituality, manifestation and methods that I can use to better myself. Although I am generally a motivated person, I too have my days where I want to sleep for hours and eat my body weight in Cadbury’s – reading a little pick me up to regain the fire in my belly is often all I need.

For some people reading is simply not an option; whether its lack of enjoyment, too little space to store books or cost – picking up a book is not functional for many people. An amazing option in these cases is to listen to audio books/podcasts which give you the same golden nuggets of information without you ever having to pick a book up again.

Go To The Yoga Class

You know that class you’ve been debating about going to since 2018? Just go. I’m going to leave this one here and let your experience do the talking.