Reflect and Nourish

A self-care journey is a lifelong journey of discovering what makes you feel nourished and supported. While many of us would like to prioritize self-care more often, it can seem overwhelming to get started.

While there’s no clear map to creating self-care goals and routines, here are a few steps I took to create habits that work for me:

1. Reflect on what activities you like to do and when.

What activities help you feel better, emotionally, physically, and spiritually? Think about the types of activities that replenish your mind, body, and soul, and make time for the ones you most enjoy.

Also consider what time of day you prefer to do those activities.

For me, meditating and exercising in the morning and reading in the evening make me feel good, so I try to stick to those routines as often as I can. 

2. Schedule those activities into your planner.

After you’ve given some thought to which activities make you feel good, try scheduling those into your daily or weekly routine. 

For example, if you love spending time with friends, schedule a phone call or coffee date with one of your friends once per week.

3. Try your new schedule for a week, and make adjustments as needed as you explore what works for you.

This part may take some trial and error, but try living out your ideal self-care routine and see how it goes. You’ll likely need to make some tweaks to your schedule to find a routine that sticks, and that’s ok! It’s all part of the process.

For instance, when I was implementing a new workout routine, I thought I wanted to run twice a week in the morning, but when I tried it out, I realized I would actually prefer to run in the early afternoon after my most important tasks are complete for the day.

It’s all about finding what works for your schedule and your body. 

4. Add challenges to make it interesting and fun.

Challenges keep our routines engaging, so try to actively look for ways to push yourself. 

As an example, if you’re starting a new exercise routine, gradually increase the weight of your equipment or the pace of your running. If you’re establishing a reading routine, gradually increase the number of pages you read per day or per week.

Gradually increasing your habits’ levels of difficulty will help ensure you’re growing in your chosen commitments. 

5. Consider using a habit-tracker to track your progress. 

It’s much easier (and more satisfying!) to stick with new habits if you can actually see the progress you’re making. This is why I recommend using a habit tracker – a visual system that tracks whether you did a habit on any given day. 

For each of your habits, you can create 30 (or 31)  boxes to represent each day of the month. Each day you complete your habits, you get to cross them off in the tracker. Productivity author James Clear offers a complete guide for creating a habit tracker.

This is highly motivating, as it allows you to visually track and acknowledge your commitments. 

What does self-care look like for you? Let me know in the comments below.