7 ways to fit self-care into your daily schedule

Two surveys conducted by The Harris Poll found that 35 of the population believe daily self-care is only possible for those with enough money, while 44 percent believe self-care is for those with enough time.

Modern lifestyle doesn’t help at all when it comes to prioritising a daily self-care.

The question is, is it really that expensive? Do we really need lots of free time to start caring for ourselves?

Even when we do find time to incorporate some self-love rituals into a busy daily schedule, we often feel guilty for doing that.

I admit! I do struggle on a daily basis, to accept that caring for myself is not selfish.

Nevertheless, not only that it’s not selfish, but it’s only way to make sure you’ll be accountable for people you care about the most – your family and friends.

I want to inspire you to find a way not to neglect your daily self-care, by sharing with you 7 ways to fit in self-care to your daily schedule.

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Daily self-care is not selfish, but it’s the only way to make sure you’ll be accountable for the people you care about the most.

Take a day off

The world will not fall apart if you take a day off the job, without any particular reason.

Most people call to ask for a day off due to sickness, but you would probably not call to ask for a self-care day because you feel burn-out, stressed, and exhaustion.

According to psychiatrists, “me time” should enter a mainstream vernacular.

Taking time to do something pleasurable is useful for your mental health, which is as important as your physical health.

To check-in within yourself should be part of your regular routine, to find out how you are doing emotionally and physically.

It is easy to fall into a trap of going beyond our limits and start ignoring our feeling, happiness, and we just accept it as a normal and regular part of life.

Don’t wait for the total brake and depletion to start taking care of yourself.

Instead connect to your inner self and try to recognize alerts that your body and soul are sending to you.

I can understand that your job, carrier and professional progress is important to you, but there is a work-life balance to be found.

It will look different for each one of us, but in order to find it, you have to start looking for your own form of it.

I know challenges happen in your personal life as well and sometimes you have to deal with them too, but do they really have a higher priority than your health?

Therefore, don’t hesitate to take a free day only for yourself, without having to provide a concrete reason.

Work is important, but you are more important, don’t forget that!

Read Self-Help Books

There is a number of authors out there who’s advice on both health-related subjects and general positive attitude in life is worth taking.

Although different authors often promote to certain extent different approaches on self-care, you can always use the approach you find the most appealing to your lifestyle.

Such books can motivate you to change some habits, which you recognize as bad for you, or put more emphasis on those identified as positive.

It doesn’t mater if you are searching for an answer to improve your career or simply to stream your daily habits and routines into more enthusiastic direction, plenty of good tips are there to be found.

Nowadays, there is a vast spectrum of self-improvement books on offer, making it not very easy to find the right one.

Maybe the best way to find the right one would be to try to identify first which part of your life and personality you would like to improve and then start researching by reading abstracts of different books.

This can of course take some time, but the potential benefit of giving you incentive to improve yourself would certainly offset the research effort.

To help you in your research, I would recommend you my personal favourite, Atomic Habits by James Clear

Maybe it would be a good start in your search for a perfect book to move you in the desired direction of self-help.

The sooner you find it, sooner can your personal growth start!

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Practice gratitude

Most of us are not aware of the small things that make us happy in our lives.

Usually, we begin to notice them only when for some reason we cannot practice them, as they are not available at the given moment. Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated this very clearly.

Therefore, we should all learn something from such unfortunate events and start to value those things more then we used to.

By exercising gratitude for all small things and habits that make us happy, we will be able to identify even more of them.

This way we can further enrich our lives and find even more joy in every next day.

Somehow, in this fast-moving world, we have forgotten how to be grateful for being healthy, for having a family and living a normal life.

Unfortunately, not all of us are that fortunate, and us that are, we often need to experience someone’s everyday life, to remind ourselves of how happy we are.

We need to be reminded to embrace life in every breath and enjoy it with full heart.

Not taking for granted all good things in our lives is the best way to find more satisfaction in it.

Be grateful for every small detail of your day that makes you feel happy, even if just for a minute.

Every cup of coffee, every morning stroll to your workplace, every emoticon in office chat, every joke during lunch break, every smile of your child when you come home, every emotion when you are reading him/her a good-night story!

Do your Pilates Class

One of most important aspects of practicing daily self-care is to exercise regularly and work actively on your physique.

Beside physical aspect, exercising is also great way to balance your thoughts and achieve emotional equilibrium.

In this sense, probably the best and most complete exercising method is pilates, allowing you to strengthen your core muscles, while doing your exercises in very relaxed way.

That is the mere philosophy behind pilates, namely high-impact low-intensity training.

Comparing to other exercising techniques, pilates targets core muscle groups, while at the same time relieving stress on joints.

This way, the recovery process between sessions is much faster and less painful, as joints need much less recovery, in contrast to most of other techniques.

Furthermore, all pilates exercises are executed in a rather slow pace, resulting in more impact on skeletal muscles and our core.

Low-intensity training allows you to use your energy much more efficient, as you will feel less muscle sourness and you will retain a high energy level.

What is more, most of pilates exercises include serious level of stretching, allowing you to achieve stronger core muscles, while improving overall flexibility of your body.

Finally, another great aspect of pilates is that exercises can be executed in the comfort of your home, with most exercises not having to include any equipment.

We live in a high-pace world, torned between family and work, which makes precious every minute of our day we can spare.

Having the possibility of working actively on our health and physique in our living room, while at the same time being very relaxed, is the luxury only pilates can offer.

So, grab your mat and threat your body and mind with 30 minutes of most relieving pilates experience! Try exercising in online studio Pilatesness 7 days for free. The best time to start was yesterday, the second best time is now!

Spend time in nature

Although it is one of the most valuable aspects of our well-being, the importance of spending time in nature is often completely neglected by us.

We are generally not aware of how important interaction with nature for our overall health and prosperity is.

It is widely known that exposure to plants boosts our immunity and vitality.

According to leading studies, time spent in nature has a positive effect on our memory, as well a wide range of positive effects on our mental health.

If you are feeling stressed and burned out, one short session in nature can do wonders for your mood.

A short stroll in a forest or a local park can make you feel relaxed and increase your energy level substantially.

What is more, if you combine spending time in nature with your pilates exercises, then you can grasp the benefits of both even stronger.

Pilates itself has a highly positive effect on our body and mind, but if additionally exercised in nature, it’s positive effect on our welfare is even stronger.

Aside from the physical aspect, spending time in nature can also do wonders for your social life as well.

Nature is a great place for meeting new friends, as well as for nourish your family relations.

The bond we develop with people we care about is even stronger if we cherish it by spending quality time with our beloved ones in natural surroundings.

Therefore, don’t forget to plan your date with nature and show love to yourself by including it in your everyday life.

Get enough sun

In connection with previous point, getting enough sun is also highly important for our body and mind and is important part of daily self-care.

Aside from being a well-known source of vitamin D, which is one of the crucial vitamins for our health, sunlight is also highly important for our hormonal balance.

Scientists believe that exposure to sun rays increases the release of serotonin, a hormone that influences our mood and level of focus.

Besides boosting our mood, enough serotonin is also very important for the quality of our sleep, which is another positive effect of exposure to sunlight.

Furthermore, exposure to sunlight has a positive effect on healing different skin conditions, like eczema, acne or psoriasis.

Although excessive exposure to sun can contribute to developing skin cancer, a medium one can actually have a preventive effect when it comes to different types of cancer.

According to researchers, there is a connection between probability of developing different types of cancer and the amount of sunlight a person is exposed to.

Studies show that population living in areas with less daylight is more prone to developing cancer, then the population living in areas with more sun rays.

Aside from cancer prevention and treating skin conditions, by releasing nitric-oxide, sunlight has also shown positive effects on reducing blood pressure and improving health of the hearth.

Finally, absorbing enough vitamin D through sunlight helps our bodies to also absorb enough calcium, which is essential for the strength and health of our bones.

So, take your time to catch enough sun rays. However, the key word when it comes to tanning is self-control!

Eat more whole food plant-based

Another good way to practice daily self-care is to eat healthier food, which will improve how your metabolism work.

What I mean here by “eating healthier food” is the intake of minimally processed plant-based foods, reducing or eliminating animal products.

This especially refers to banning added sugars and refined oils from your diet, as these products can have severe impact on your health in general.

Instead of this, try to put more emphasis on plants, including vegetables, fruits, seeds and nuts, whole grains, legumes etc.

At the same time, you do not have to make compromises when it comes to taste, as some of us would think.

Whole food plant-based diet can include some very tasty meals, you just need to have some more patience in preparing your food.

You would be surprised how tasty some plant-based dishes can be if you are a bit more open-minded and allow your imagination to take over when you are cooking.

Beside having a very tasty meal, a satisfaction of knowing that you have treated your body with top-quality nutrients, makes the joy even greater.

At the same time, try to source your plant-based food from local organic farms, as this way you can be surer of the quality of your food.

I know adjusting to such diet takes some time and is not an easy process, but the gains from it can do wonders for your health.

Maybe the best way to start is to try to limit your mind to plant-based products when doing everyday shopping for groceries.

When your refrigerator is limited to such products, then it is much easier to make healthy compromises.

Anyway, you should start early. Today is the best day. Take that grocery cart and start thinking GREEN!

There is nothing revolutionary in the above suggestions for daily self-care, but we anyway often forget about them.

For some of you they will maybe sound like obvious facts, but ask yourself if you really practice them regularly, or you need being reminded from time to time.

Maybe some of us practice them in some other or similar form and may find these suggestions as a good guideline for extending our self-care routine.

Anyway, reminding us of ourselves is not a bad idea from time to time!

Reminding myself works for me, so I hope it might also work for all of you!