5 Tips to Develop a Self-Care Practice
Motivate Yourself & Maintain Your Wellness Goals Beyond Start of the Year
Do you feel like you’re already losing sight of your 2019 wellness goals? No worries. I’ve just recorded a podcast with some advice on this topic. You can listen to the episode on my Anchor podcast channel here: https://anchor.fm/coach-colette/episodes/5-Tips-to-Develop-a-Self-care-Practice-e33aet/a-a77ptt. The transcript continues below.
Coach Colette: [00:00:01] Hi. This is Coach Colette. Do you feel like you’re already losing sight of your 2019 wellness goals? No worries. I’ve got your back. Today I’m going to share with you five tips to develop a self-care practice in 2019. So, we all wear our busy badges so proudly that we sometimes forget that it’s important to take breaks eat lunch or even go to the bathroom when we need to everyone experiences stress. That’s why it’s crucial to proactively create opportunities for quality alone time including mental and physical rest so you can refocus and actually be more productive in the long run. I need to remind you of Audre Lourde’s quote: “Self-care is not self-indulgent. It’s an act of self-preservation.”
Here are five tips to help you develop a self-care practice to sustain you throughout the year.
Coach Colette: [00:01:16] 1. Make the commitment to yourself for self-care.
You are worth it. The thing is we get so used to doing things in the same ways we’re actually more afraid to make changes than we are to live out our worn out routines even if those routines are causing us to feel ill stressed out or overwhelmed. I have a question for you. What’s at stake for you and your health if you continue to live out your worn out routine. Can you imagine what it would be like to wake up in the morning and not have it hurt? Maybe when you get out of bed or to feel more excited and full of energy for your day? Yes, it is possible when you start within and make the commitment to yourself and your health and well-being. Put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others; and, one way to do that is to develop a self-care practice.
2. Set an intention for what you would like to gain from yourself care practice.
This is really about your why. What personal and professional goals have you set for yourself this year? And, how would carving out more time for you, via self-care, support you in achieving those goals? Think not just about what you would like to achieve but also how you would like to feel as you were doing so it’s important to recognize the connection between your physical mental and emotional well-being and your goals.
Coach Colette: [00:03:18] This is because they all feed off of one another. As the saying goes: “Your body doesn’t lie.” So, when you act in ways that align with your intentions, you typically feel more calm and focused because you’re honoring your true desires and priorities. And, this is really important because we’re living in the age of staring at screens and multitasking and on the go 24/7. But your inner self really knows when you’re on the right path and when you’re not. So when you set the intention from the beginning for your health then you are more likely to take actions that align with that. And when you don’t. It’s not about guilt thing or beating yourself up. It’s about: “How do I course correct? How do I get back on the path to the health and well-being that I desire?”
3. Choose self-care actions that motivate and inspire you
When deciding what self-care actions you’d like to take. It’s important to think about what works for you. What health, wellness, healing activities excite and motivate you? Everyone is different. For me, personally, I like to meditate in the morning. I like to listen to guided meditations. Pretty soon after I wake up it’s my opportunity to get grounded, to get focused, to start the day off with a clear mind, a clear perspective. And since I take usually anywhere between 15 to 20 minutes to do this, and I’m often either sitting still or sometimes lying down.
Coach Colette: [00:05:22] It also extends the rest period for me when I get out of bed. But everyone is different. So you want to think about: “What are the actions that you are most excited about? What would you like to do to help rejuvenate and refresh yourself mind body or spirit?” There are lots of ideas. Anything from journaling, to reading, to listening to music, to walking, to coloring. There are a whole host of different activities that you can take on. The goal is to really think about what are the ones that excite you so that you’ll be more likely to continue doing that.
4. Schedule your self-care actions on your calendar.
Decide when you would like to commit to doing your self-care, and then schedule those activities onto your calendar — just like you would any other meeting or appointment. You can think of them as ME-TIME dates with yourself. Ideally, it would be great if you can carve out some ME-TIME for yourself every day. Even if it’s just for one, two, three minutes per day. After you get more in practice and really have developed your self-care routine, you’re going to get into the rhythm of it more; and, soon, it will just be second nature. Kind of like how meditating is for me.
Coach Colette: [00:07:06] I don’t have a meditating appointment on my calendar. It’s just something that I do. But that’s something that I’ve been doing for over five years. So I encourage you that if this is a new practice, something that you’re taking on for the first time, I would recommend that you block that time out on your calendar and really aim to honor those appointments. So that when other things come up, aim to schedule around your self-care. Make that commitment to yourself.
5. Tack the differences in your well-being as you begin your practice.
Start to notice: “Are there changes in your mood? Are there changes in your physical health? Are there changes in your relationships?” We are living in the age of quantified self. So, there are lots of different ways that you can track your health and well-being. I use a site called Chart Myself; and what I like about that is that it sends me an email every day at 1:00 p.m. And, so, for me, I am tracking how much water I drink during the day. I’m also tracking my mood; and with this app I rate the mood on a scale of one to ten. And, then obviously, however many glasses of water I drink, I am able to track that in the app as well. So, it’s really important to think about what are the aspects of your health and well-being that you would like to track; because then you’ll start to see progress over time as you continue with your self-care routine.
Coach Colette: [00:08:58] So, those are my five tips to help you develop a self-care practice. And, if you’re looking for more support, we are actually launching the next round of our Start Within Self-Care Challenge on February 11th. That’s a free and online challenge that will support you to commit to taking at least one self-care action over seven days. And we’re really excited about this round because it happens to fall, not coincidentally, during the week of not only Valentine’s Day on February 14th, but also during Galentine’s Day or Self-Love Day on February 13th. So we thought that that would be the perfect week to give you the opportunity to commit to a self-care practice. So, if you’re following me on social media on Instagram or Twitter you can find out more information. The challenge starts February 11th. You can sign up online. You can also sign up on our website; and if you go under Services there’s more information about the Start Within Self-Care Challenge. So I’m looking forward to hearing more about the self-care actions that you take on and am excited to continue this journey with you starting Feb. 11.
Take care. Be well. Start Within and Finish Strong.
