The Top 4 Practices You Can Begin Today
With busy work schedules and family time, personal time often goes to the back burner. While this might be okay on a short-term basis, if self-care is not achieved, the only one who suffers is you.
According to the National Library of Medicine, “As of 2019, Americans 25 years of age and older, 6.6 percent engaged in health-related self-care each day. Among that reporting self-care, almost 80 percent only used 90 minutes to relax; 20.6 percent reported 2 hours or more.”
Self-care is not only about bubble baths and short vacations. This is about taking the time you need to give back to yourself as a person.
Let us look at the top four ways that you can start today to begin treating yourself:
Compliment yourself – We often are our own worst critic. In fact, a recent study conducted by Weight Watchers, “Women were found to criticize themselves at least eight times a day. In a survey of 2,000 women, one in seven participants admitted to criticizing or berating themselves regularly each day.”
Give yourself a short-term task to complete, such as cleaning out the car. Now, compliment your behavior. “Cleaning the car was a hard job, but I’m proud I took care of this chore.” Acknowledge the feeling of compliments and continue to do this throughout your day. By being kinder to yourself, your demeanor towards others will be more inviting and calmer.
Find your passion in hobbies – By engaging in activities that bring personal achievements, is not only good for your body but your mind. Many people have multiple hobbies ranging from outdoor activities to quiet times.
According to a study conducted by Target Market Research, “In general, 74 percent of overall respondents consider having hobbies to be important. However, 66 percent agree that they can also be time consuming. And 66 percent said that they wish they had more time for hobbies in their lives.”
Choose a hobby for indoors and one for outdoors. Maybe you will commit to a twenty-minute walk everyday around your neighborhood. For indoor hobbies, choose one that allows for personal time as opposed to group activities, such as sewing or building bird houses.
Allow yourself to make mistakes – While striving for perfection in almost everything we do; we often overlook how it is affecting us as an individual. Each mistake is taken as a step back as opposed to a learning experience.
Emotions, physical tension, and exhaustion find their way to the top of our proverbial life rope. As children we learn from our mistakes and keep learning, yet, as adults, we discount this.
The next time you are presented with an important task, allow yourself to take it one step at a time. Use the pro and con method. Write down the good things that could happen if you choose one way and what could be the downfall. This is how you learn.
Ask for help – Everything we learn comes from someone else’s experiences. Though it might seem easier to do things on your own, this often leads to resentment and burnout.
A newly released study conducted by Civil Science LLC showed, “As it turns out, 74 percent of US adults do ask for help. That is an overwhelming majority, and a great sign, especially in an age and a society that prioritizes self-reliance.”
The next time you are faced with a large project, try dividing up with tasks to others that can contribute. If it is cleaning up the yard, ask friends to join you and reward them with a home cooked meal and good conversation.
In Conclusion
Making a pivotal change to treat yourself better is a road that seems unattainable but, in the end, the reward is worth the fight. As famed musician Aaron Bell once quoted, “When you treat yourself special, you bring out the best in yourself.”
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