Now that spring is here, it’s the perfect time to focus on you. Love yourself. Reward yourself. Practice self care! Here are five ways you can amp up your self care routine for the spring.
Express Gratitude
We are always focused on what we have done in the past, but just as it’s beneficial to keep track of what we’ve done, it’s also good to notice what we have. Keep a journal by your bed, and note the things that you feel lucky to have. Everything from clean sheets to a good friend is worth noting.
Build support and strengthen relationships
There are quite a few ways that you can support and strengthen relationships (even during times of lockdowns), but I will touch on three ways that I love. The first way is to make connections. If you need to stay at home and distance yourself from others, avoid total social isolation because that can lead to depression and anxiety. Find time each day to make virtual connections by email, texts, phone, FaceTime or similar apps. If you’re working remotely from home, ask your co-workers how they’re doing and share fun stories. Enjoy virtual socializing and of course, also focus on talking to those in your home.
The second way to support and strengthen relationships is to do something for others. Find purpose in helping the people around you. For example, email, text or call to check on your friends, family members and neighbors, especially those who are elderly. If you know someone who can’t get out, ask if there’s something needed, such as groceries or a prescription picked up.
Last but not least, support a family member or friend. If a family member or friend needs to be isolated for safety reasons or gets sick and needs to be quarantined at home or in the hospital, come up with ways to stay in contact. This could be through electronic devices or the telephone or by sending a note to brighten the day.
Now, I know with these, I focused a lot on the isolation part. A lot of people are still sheltering at home and have been struggling with depression, isolation, and lack of communication. So do what you can to help others. But you can implement these tactics into your day-to-day life, outside of a pandemic, as well.
Focus on your physical health
Strengthening your overall physical health and immune system is a great thing to focus on – now and in the future. There are a lot of simple ways to focus on your physical health such as, healthy eating, working out regularly, drinking a lot of high-quality water, taking good-for-you supplements, and more, but I want to touch on one thing that most do not think about: getting routine dental care done! There is a huge connection between oral health, gut health, and overall physical health. Studies have shown that poor dental health leads to a higher risk of forming dementia and other diseases. Just as you have a gut microbiome and skin microbiome, you also have an oral microbiome that you need to take care of. Regular bi-yearly dental appointments are important to make sure that your teeth are strong and healthy. Metro Decatur Dental Group PC knows how important overall dental care is, which is why they are committed to making your dental experience superior. The dentist, Dr. Simms is known for being gentle, caring, patient, and kind, which are things that everyone wants in a dentist – especially those that have a fear of the dentist! Dr. Simms is able to clean teeth, do orthodontic work, whiten teeth, and even repair cracked teeth in Decatur, GA. Dr. Simms and the staff at Metro Decatur Dental Group PC uses state-of-the-art equipment, most treatments are covered by a long-term guarantee, and since they have over 30 years of dental experience and experience with implants, they are truly experts in all facets of dentistry. Dental health is the key to great overall health, so make sure you get your teeth checked and cleaned bi-yearly!
Focus on a meaningful goal
Each day, I like to focus on at least one meaningful goal by taking a small step towards it, whether it’s doing a workout to look after my health or writing a blog post to help grow my business. Something I started this year was writing out my quarterly goals. One of my Q1 goals was to officially register my LLC and I successfully accomplished this! Some of your big goals could look like:
- strengthening your relationships
- saving for a vacation, a house, a renovation, or something else that you are looking forward to
- improving your emotional and mental wellbeing
- anything else that is important to you
Don’t forget to relax
America lives by a go-go-go mentality. Working 40 hours a week is never enough, the sooner you respond to emails, the better, and a lot of us honestly glorify the hustle mentality. I mean, look through Instagram and I know you will see one (probably more) profiles that say things like #motherhustler or #workingmom. While I do think that we need to be proud of our accomplishments (please don’t get me wrong!), and I think that women are amazing and can do absolutely anything that they want but I also think that we are so focused on working and hustling 100% of our time, that a lot of us forget to relax…and that is very important! Take time for yourself. Take a bath, read a book, drink a cup of hot tea or coffee, or get a massage. Whatever brings you joy, take time out of your day to do that, so that you are working towards an all around better self-care routine in your day-to-day life. We can be proud of how well our business is doing, but the goal is to have a killer business while also being able to enjoy our lives! Keep that in mind!
**Thanks for reading; you’re F.A.Bulous!**