Do you feel that heaviness in your heart and your body? Drained emotionally, physically, psychologically, and otherwise? Looking forward to the end of the day to lie down and close your eyes to sleep; nothing else matters anymore. Practice these 10 self-care tips for the long term to avoid burnout.
It’s like you are giving too much to everyone around except yourself. Self-care is crucial because it keeps uplifted.
Too much work, stress, discouragement, and personal and family issues can leave us exhausted, burned out, and void. Self-care has shown in many ways that it can come to our rescue.
Well, let’s explore the sustainable 10 self-care tips:
1. Keep your happy place lively
It can be hard to stay positive and motivated in a toxic environment, particularly when everyone close to you is carrying a heavy load of stress, and that alone can keep you down. But if you can, that will reduce the effect of negative energy in your life.
Wear your beautiful smile even when the odds are against you. Smile even more. Fill your personal space with things that bring a smile to your face and make you happy.
As time goes on, you will realize that the more you purposely maintain positivity, it becomes your habit. It will also impact people around you.
2. Catch up with family and friends
Do you ever miss the warmth and loud laughter you make with friends and family? At the same time feel like you are not in a good space and you do not have time? Well, this time can be therapeutic.
Make it a point to schedule the time to spend with your loved ones. Do the things you like together, and share the joys, and the difficulties you are facing. It is good for your mental health and improves your relationships.
You can catch up with them during dinner time, take a walk together, play games, or work together on the goals that you share.
3. Take a break from social media
Scrolling on social media from post to post, profile to another, and from one video to the next comes naturally. Information overload at the fingertips can be so addictive, time-wasting, and full of negativity.
Take a break from all these social media platforms. It is a good form of self-care because it will reduce negativity that you feed your mind unintentionally, and you will have more time to yourself and be in control of things.
Well, you can set a time limit to spend on social media, or even use apps that can log you automatically when the time is up.
4. Setting clear healthy boundaries
Sometimes it can be difficult to say NO to certain people, or you feel like you are being disrespected or mistreated. There are times when you do things that you do not really like or believe in them, just to please the next person. That can be avoided because it hurts your emotions.
Communicate your boundaries clearly to your family and friend, even at the workplace. It is important to tell them well in advance what you can and cannot do. This will help you say NO boldly because they know your stand. It will protect your emotions from getting hurt.
During the quality time that you are spending with your loved ones, make it a point that you raise such topics and communicate. Be consistent in communicating your boundaries. This is self-care and caring for the people around you.
5. Prepare a to-do list the night before
Have you felt overwhelmed in the morning, not knowing where to start? The day goes by, and you cannot really see what you have done. It can be very stressful and time-consuming. Well, you are not alone, it happens to the best of us but it can be avoided.
The night before, compile a list of things that you are supposed to do the following day. In the morning, go through that list again just to make sure all is in order. Being organized will reduce your stress and increase your productivity.
Break down your projects into smaller tasks. Then start with the most important ones that you dislike and complete them. Once the complicated ones are done, it will be easier to finish the remaining easy tasks for the day.
6. Let your passion and talent uplift you
Doing a certain job just for the sake of having financial security can drain you mentally and emotionally. But you can still take control of what you like.
Find your talent or a hobby. Work on it at least once a week. Give it enough time and attention. You will look forward to doing something you like. That will bring a smile to your face even when you are at work.
It can be painting, cooking, knitting, etc. To make it even more memorable, you can involve your family and friends.
7. Special time with yourself
Often times you drown yourself in work and spending time with family and friends. You totally forget about yourself. This can leave you empty and tired.
Remember that recharging is very important because you cannot pour from the empty cup. Simple, have a ‘me’ time. Taking some time to be alone is golden. You can do it at home, on weekends away, outdoors, or anywhere you can be comfortable.
Do self-introspection, meditate, read, plan, analyze your life, and or take a rest. Do the things that will empower and help you to gain more strength to face life.
8. Feed your mind the anticipated results
With so much information we are exposed to, it can be challenging to select what we feed our minds. Bad things make news and they are given wide publicity, hence negative vibes dominate most of the time. Self-care is still a necessity.
Read, watch, and listen to the things that empower your mind. In that way, you will be feeding your mind positivity. Stress will be reduced and you will see the brighter side of things.
Be selective about what gets into your mind. Reducing the number of times you listen to or watch the news may be helpful. Listen to motivational speakers and good music. Purposely chose to read the books that are positive.
9. Nutritious food is key to self-care
Time is a scarce commodity. Have you ever made a decision to eat healthy as part of self-care but falter within the first two weeks? Well, you are not alone. On the other hand, fast foods are becoming the worst enemy of your body.
Pre-prepared meals can become handy. Home-cooked meals are more nutritious and you can prepare them just the way you will enjoy them. Schedule the eating times and treat yourself with love by eating without the distraction from work, and gadgets.
Stand on the stove once or twice a week to prepare healthy foods and pre-pack them. This will be helpful because you will be sorted for the busy days. You can even consider meal delivery services.
10. Let your body move and be active
Can you imagine being in good mood, feeling happier, and being healthy? Exercising can help you to achieve these results. Do you really have to hit the gym in order to exercise? It can be scary and exciting at the same time to take the step of committing to go to the gym. Well, the good news is that you don’t really have to go.
Exercising is not supposed to be complicated, find the physical activities that you can participate in. It can be dancing, jogging, taking a walk, skipping the rope, swimming, hiking, you mention them. Let it be something that you enjoy.
Taking the stairs instead of escalators can help to be active. Put your bag far from your desk at work so that you can stand up to get your stuff. Park your car far from the entrance of where you going. Get off one bus stop away from your destination and walk.
Final thoughts
Can you imagine being energetic and productive at work? Spending quality time with your loved ones after work without any negative energy.
Yes, you can definitely be able to do that when you practice self-care.
Remember you are a part of people and things that you really care about. You have only one body that you live in. Take care of it, it will take care of you.