Practicing More Self-Care
I think in my 20s a lot changed in terms of how I feel as a person and how I perceive the world. Looking back, things that mattered to me in high school and college now seem trivial. As I get older, I find it more and more important to practice self-care. This year I embraced it a lot more and focused on what made me happy in mind and in body. I think one of the main things to keep in mind is ridding yourself of anything that adds extra stress in your life. If that means cutting out certain people or certain daily routines - do it. There's really no point in continuing to do something that makes you miserable. I thought I'd share a few of my favorite things to do to practice self-care and ones I'll continue to do in the new year and beyond.
- Have your routines and stick with them. Personally I have 3 routines that I love every day. The first being my morning skincare routine, my makeup 'get ready with me' routine, and my evening skincare routine. I find that a lot of non beauty bloggers / skincare lovers find the idea of a 7-step routine (or more) daunting, but I find it to be relaxing and soothing. I love taking that extra time to pamper my skin to make me feel better.
- Organizing your space. Growing up I used to find cleaning so therapeutic. I always knew come finals season in school that I needed to clean up my room/closet before or I'd procrastinate and do that instead of studying. These days that's still mostly true. I do keep my work space pretty tidy (aside from my piles of paperwork everywhere), and that helps me focus. If I'm ever really stressed in life, I know that most likely has to do with extra clutter surrounding me that needs to be cleared. I've been a lot better about passing on unloved items on to friends now and it'll definitely be something I continue to do so I don't have too much clutter surrounding me. Tidying up one drawer at a time is minute but helps in the long run.
- Reorganize your closet. I used to do this so much when I was younger and don't know why I don't do this more. I have my closet color-coded and separated by category. I've Marie Kondo-ed my jeans, shirts, sweaters, socks, and even my underwear (lol). OCD in my closet is something that is the norm, but since moving into my apartment I've kind of just let things pile up. Our apartment is a temporary thing so I'm not gonna fuss around too much with new storage or anything. I'm just dealing. But in my future place, I'm really hoping for more.
- Sort through your skincare and makeup stash. Much similarly to the above, I used to be so OCD about my makeup and would organize them almost weekly to make sure I was rotating my products in and out. These days I'm much more laid back with my makeup and just live out of my Cuyana makeup bag with the same few products. My current bathroom has a giant cabinet which allows me to have all my skincare in one place. I've sorted all of these by category which makes it easy to grab what I want and need. I need to sift through it every once in a while to make sure I don't forget about anything and rotate things in accordingly.
- Create a comforting environment. To me a lot of this can be found in twinkle lights, candles, and cozy blankets. I enjoy having the separation of bedroom/living room/work space in my apartment and I try to keep all work out of the bedroom and keep that solely for sleep.
- Make yourself a cup of coffee or tea. I'm terrible about drinking water and really enjoy a warm drink. Luckily caffeine doesn't really impact me so I can drink it as late as I want and I'll still be able to sleep like a baby. My bf and I also just bought ourselves some hot chocolate mix + mini marshmallows so I'll surely be drinking that on the regular throughout Winter.
- Bake some treats. I loved baking when I was younger as I found it so therapeutic. These days with Pinterest, recipes are at your fingertips and it's so easy to do it yourself. My bf has a sweet tooth and I have an arsenal of coworkers to munch on any treats I decide to make. I love baking but don't always like eating all the treats myself, so this works out perfectly for me. I treated myself to a KitchenAid mixer after wanting one for years, so I'm excited to really start breaking it in.
- Go and work out. I'm not the most athletic person but sometimes having a good exercise session does wonders to clear your mind. Treating your body better and taking care of it helps immensely. For a while I was stretching and doing Yoga each night and it helped a lot with how I could unwind at the end of the day and wake up feeling more refreshed. I was able to pick up some cute new workout pieces from Outdoor Voices + Girlfriend Collective recently too, so I'm ready to start hitting the gym up again.
- Curl up with a book. I think this year was a great reminder that books can be just as fun to read. One of the few books I enjoyed reading have to be the entirety of the Harry Potter series. This year I thoroughly enjoyed curling up and flipping through my book while I was on my cruise - I was definitely antisocial and spent a lot of time reading rather than mingling with other young folk on the cruise (oh well).
- Binge watch a good series on TV. I'm working up a giant excel sheet with all my favorite TV shows, how many seasons are available, and on what app they're available on (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO, etc.).
- Enjoy a good nap. I was the queen of naps in college and took one pretty much every single day (lol). I rarely nap these days as my naps always turn into 3-hour mini sleep fests. Occasionally I'll lay on the couch on weekends and knock out for a few hours with my dog. He sleeps all day and loves cuddling with us when we sleep too. (He's sleeping next to me as I write this - it isn't even 6PM yet.)
What are some of your favorite ways to practice self care? I know it isn't always just about beauty pampering, but so much more. Let's chat below!