10 Ways to Create a Self-Care Routine

If you’re not taking care of yourself first, everything else in your life will suffer. Whether your goal is to implement more self-care into your life or you just want to step up your self-care routine, I’m going to give you a bunch of ideas to help you hit the self-care ball out of the park.

Put together a morning ritual:

The time you spend when you first wake up sets the tone for your entire day. What you choose to fill that time with is very important. Instead of spending an hour scrolling through social media, opt for a well-curated morning routine. Choose a couple of things you want to get done every morning and put together your morning routine.

My ideal morning routine looks something like this: wake up, stretch, meditate, drink a glass of water, write up my to-do list for the day, and get to it.

Take time for affirmations:

Whether you’re working to manifest your yes or you just need a couple of words of encouragement to yourself, affirmations are the best! They’re exciting and powerful and can help you manifest anything you want.

As part of your self-care routine, fit a couple of minutes into your morning routine to sit with your affirmations. Say them out loud to yourself. Write them down and keep your affirmations in your pocket all day. The power of your affirmations will help you manifest whatever you want into your life.

Start a self-care piggy bank:

This one’s self-explanatory. Start saving money in a jar specifically for self-care-related things. At the end of the day put any spare change in the jar. Whenever you find yourself with a couple of extra dollars, add it to the jar. Every month or every couple of months, dip into your self-care piggy bank and treat yourself to something self-care-related. Book yourself a massage or buy that big fuzzy robe you’ve been eyeing. You deserve it!

Get serious about journaling:

Journaling is so underrated. It’s an outlet for you to get everything going on in your head out of there. We all know how crazy we can drive ourselves by keeping things bottled up or going over the same situation in our heads a million times.

Grab a notebook and a pen and go to town. I love journaling when I find myself trying to sleep while my mind races a mile a minute or when I’m trying to work through a problem. It’s a great way to get your thoughts out of your head and down on paper where you can see them in front of your own eyes.

Allow yourself to relax:

You’re allowed to take a break! Plan a day where you completely relax. Stock your fridge with your favorite foods or order yourself a pizza. Get cozy in your bed or on your couch and get the Netflix going. Spend the day relaxing! Take the day to be a little bit brainless and reset. Don’t think about any commitments you have.

Make time to meditate:

Whatever your meditation is, take the time to just be quiet and alone with your thoughts. Focus less on thinking of nothing and more on letting your thoughts just pass through your train of thought naturally. One time in a transcendental meditation class, we were told to imagine meditation as your time to let your thoughts digest. We spend all day taking in information, we need time for it to digest. You’d be surprised what parts of your day pass through your train of thought when you get quiet with yourself.

Detox all aspects of your life:

Detoxes are all the rage these days and for good reason. Detox in all aspects of your life.

From your emails to your friend list, do a bunch of little detoxes in all aspects of your life. Maybe think about the people you spend your time with, are all of them worth that time? Go through your closet and pick out the pieces that no longer serve you. Your list of goals from last year? Clear out the goals that no longer fit your yes to make room for goals that will truly move you toward your dream life. As part of your self-care routine, take the time to clean out the little dust bunnies in all corners of your life.

Do what makes you happy:

Words to live by. The best way to live your best life is to do what truly makes you happy. Don’t do the things that don’t make you happy. Do the things you want to do and don’t do the things you don’t want to do. You are not obliged to do things you don’t want to. So don’t! As soon as I experienced how good it felt to make moves based on what I truly wanted to do and what really made me happy there was no turning back. It’s not selfish. It doesn’t make you a bad person. You do you and put yourself first!

Create an emergency self-care game plan:

Always be prepared in case of an emergency. In this case, it’s important to be ready for any scenario where you might need some emergency self-care. Start by coming up with a plan. Think about certain instances where an emergency self-care plan would come in handy. For example, say you’re having a really bad day and you need some self-love time to get yourself through. This will be your self-care 911. The point is to have everything in place for when a crisis strikes and you need immediate self-care.

You can simply come up with a self-care routine that includes taking a bath, picking up your favorite food for dinner, and meditating for an extra ten minutes. You could go as far as putting together an emergency kit for these critical times. Maybe your kit will have a chocolate bar, a face mask, a bottle of wine, and a big cozy blanket.

This post was originally published on Yes Supply, a site that helps women create a blog, business, and life they love.