Best Self Care Habits
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7 Best Self Care Habits

Whether it is the beginning of the year or the beginning of Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter, it is always a good time to add self care habits to your life.

It is typical for us to think about starting new selfcare habits at the beginning of the year.  Unfortunately, many of us try to make too many improvements or changes at that time.  Then, we often find ourselves failing in one or more areas in which we were hoping to create new habits. 

Self Care Habits for every Season

That’s one of the reasons that it is good to consider the different seasons as another time to begin new self care habits and to build them into our daily life.

Self care habits can be for our physical, spiritual, mental and emotional health.  It is important to take care of ourselves in all those ways.

Let’s look at 7 best self care habits that you could begin to improve upon right now, no matter what time of the year it is.

Better Sleep

Sleep is an underrated self care habit, but it’s a great one to start with. When you are able to get a good night’s sleep it can reduce your stress, help with anxiety, and  boost your productivity.

There are many healthy, natural ways to get better sleep. You could try melatonin or using an essential oil diffuser (lavender is known for its relaxing scent) at night. Another option is to take a bath before bedtime or read a book in bed prior to trying to fall asleep.  Both of these actions help to relax you.  They are much better than watching TV or scrolling through feeds on your phone before you go to bed.

If you need even more ideas for getting better sleep, be sure to check out Get a Good Night’s Sleep Naturally. It is focused only on the self care habit of improving sleep and includes several excellent tips.

Quiet Time with the Lord

Having a daily quiet time to spend with the Lord is an absolute fantastic self care habit.  Your quiet time could include worship, Bible Study, prayer and journaling.  If you don’t know where to start, here are a few ideas:

  • Listen to some Worship songs on YouTube or the radio.
  • Try an online Bible Study (there are free ones as well as paid ones)
  • Prayer – talk with the Lord.  He wants to hear from you.  You could try a Prayer Method like this one to help you get started. It’s very easy to use and helps you stay focused.
  • Spiritual journaling – Write about your daily spiritual life – what songs you listened to and why you enjoyed them, what you learned in your Bible Study, answers to prayer, etc. You can write in any journal you wish. Need an idea? Here’s a pretty journal that I like.

Warm Drinks

Choosing a favorite warm drink – coffee, tea or even hot chocolate are all great self care habits.  For many people, including me, my cup of hot coffee is a blissful part of waking up and beginning the day. 

Another super healthy option is to have a warm cup of water with some fresh lemon squeezed into it.  This is a perfect habit for hydrating your body first thing in the morning.  It will also provide you with some natural energy, so you can start your day in a positive way.

Journal

We’ve shared about journaling before, but it is well worth mentioning as one of the self care habits to consider.  Journaling is helpful for your mental and emotional health.  Plus, it’s a great way to record special things that happen to you that you really want to remember.  It’s an excellent place to write the details of special events.

You may wish to set your alarm 15 minutes early to allow you time to journal in the morning.  Or, if you prefer, you can simply journal later in the day. 

Journaling is such a great way to help us deal with the things that happen to us everyday.  For more benefits and to see a variety of journaling options, be sure to check out this Journaling for Beginners post. 

Plan Your Day with a Simple To Do List

Planning your day with a To Do List or Planner is a superb self care habit to add to your day.  You can start with a simple list of 2 -3 main priorities for the day.  Think – what absolutely must be done today?  If you like to do lists, you can certainly add a few more, “If there’s time” items to the list.  Knowing those top priorities of the day as you begin your day is a great way to help you be sure that those tasks get done.

You can create this simple to do list early in the morning, or simply prepare it the night before.  Creating it the night before is often helpful because it may help you fall asleep, knowing you already have your To Do List ready.  I love this simple 1 page Planner with To Do List.  It’s super simple and is a great way to remember what must be done that day well as what you would like to do if there’s a little more time.

In summary, using a To Do List or Planner helps improve your productivity and helps keep you focused on what needs to be done.  Try this in the morning for a few days, then try it in the evening and see which works best for you.

Practice Hygge

Hygge is a Danish practice of being comfortable, cozy and relaxed. You may not be Danish, but it is still one of the self care habits that you can adopt.  When you are actively practicing hygge, you will spend more time winding down and enjoying your downtime.  The opposite of that would be constantly running around keeping busy.

I have found that hygge can be a difficult self care habit to master.  Relaxing and doing little is not something that comes easy to many of us.  But, it is a worthwhile habit.  I read this book on hygge a few years ago and it opened by eyes to this worthwhile habit.  It is an excellent book which describes hygge thoroughly and provides excellent ideas to build hygge into your daily routine.

Exercise

I know, I know, you hear it all the time.  You must exercise to take care of yourself.  But, let’s make it clear that we are not talking about an hour at the gym doing some extreme routine of exercise. 

Adding simple and gentle exercises to your daily routine is one ot the absolute best self care habits you can do.  When I first started exercising after my youngest son was born, I watched a simple exercise program (Body Electric with Margaret Richards) on tv in the early morning.  I still enjoy that type of workout today. It was a 30 minute program of low resistance and high reps. 

That was easy, especially compared to the exercise programs that I used afterward (The Firm – this is the first one I owned and I still love it, but not recommended if you want to start with a gentle exercise program).  Nevertheless, it was an excellent workout. 

Another gentle exercise is walking.  You can start at 10 minutes a day and add on additional minutes as time and busyness allows.

Other simple exercises to use to grow your self care habits, are yoga, Pilates, or swimming.    You could also try out a new sport like pickleball and see if you enjoy it.

Are you ready to add some new self care habits to your life?

If so, pick one or two of the above 7 Best Self Care Habits and give them a try for the next 30 days. Hopefully, you will find a few that you want to keep on doing every single day.

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