Five Essential Self-Care Practices You NEED to Regularly DO

From self-talk to self-love… here are the necessities!

Finally busting the myth of self-care and finding out what it truly is for was lifechanging! I was one of those people who really believed that self-care was about going to the spa and taking bubble baths.

But self-care is much more than that. In fact, self-care actually takes more time and effort than we would initially think.

That’s why, this blog post is going to go through the Five Essential Self-Care Practices that you need to do! And you need to do them regularly as well.

Because without them, there will always be something missing when we try to do self-care. As we mentioned earlier, there’s so much more to self-care than those luxurious activities. This blog post will go through it.

You will learn about each of these essential practices and later on, small steps to help you get started on them (if you haven’t already). This blog post is for all those who want to know about self-care, but also want to become better versions of themselves in general.

Because you do become a better version of yourself when you take care of yourself!

Now, I definitely suggest that while you’re learning more on how to be better at self-care, check out the blog post on the the essential actions to take for self-care in each area of your life! But yeah, read this after reading this!

Let’s dive in.

1 – Self-Talk

Self-talk are the simple statements of affirmations you say to yourself. These include compliments and words of appreciation.

For example, you may say to yourself “you look really beautiful today” or “you are really good at baking those cookies”.

Pretty much, it’s any words of kindness and encouragement that you would say to someone else, you say to yourself.

Self-talk is a very important practice of self-care because words are very powerful! Make sure that the words that you say to yourself are words that are uplifting, motivating, and positive.

If you notice that you may be saying some negative things to yourself, then find an alternative affirmation.

Read my past blog post talking about self-talk!

2 – Self-Date

These are when you do activities by yourself.

Get to know yourself by figuring out what YOU like. Doing things on your own is the perfect opportunity to figure out what YOU like doing.

You like something but none of your friends do? 100% fine! You can go on your own!

What are some examples of “dates” you can go on with yourself? Well, here are a few:

• Take a walk
• Explore your city
• Take yourself on a lunch/dinner date.
• Read a book in a cafe
• Go to the cinemas.

Honestly, the possibilities are endless! Think of activities that you’ve always wanted to do. If there’s nobody you know who wants to do it, you’re allowed to do it on your own! (but of course, safety first always!!)

3 – Self-Gifts

This is where you give things to yourself.

Whether you do some shopping, or treat yourself to food, do something that reminds you how much you care for yourself.

Giving gifts to yourself doesn’t always have to be expensive. It doesn’t need to be expensive! Your worth has nothing to do with monetary value, just like how giving a gift to someone isn’t about how much money it costs, but about how much thought was put in.

What are some gift ideas you can do for yourself?

• Make a handmade gift
• Keep a “Gift Idea Notebook” – whenever you think of something you want to get for yourself, list it down in the gift idea notebook, and whenever it’s time to get yourself a gift, you have plenty of ideas!
• Get yourself a box of chocolate.
• Buy yourself a book.
• Get a plant.

Of course, just like every other list of examples, the possibilities are endless! Think about what you would personally love to get.

4 – Self-Service

Then we have self-service. This is where you do tasks to make life easy on yourself… these are not always the most fun things to do.

Sometimes, self-care can be decluttering your spaces, or doing a task that has been bothering you for a while. Sometimes it’s doing a task that would save you from so much stress in the long run!

Here are some ideas:

• Give your room a makeover.
• Wash your car.
• Clean your room.
• Cook a meal.
• Do a task that you have been procrastinating (I don’t know what that is, you tell me).

You can even make a list and do a brain dump of all the things that you need to do. From the things you randomly thought of, the things you have put off, and everything that you were thinking of doing and kept procrastinating.

5 – Self-Love

Last but not least, the most important practice of self-care is SELF-LOVE!

Self-love does not mean that you’ve got to be arrogant. Self-love means give your time and energy to yourself. You deserve all the love that you have to give. If there was one person you should give your love to, it’s yourself.

Yes you have to give other people love, but the most important person to give love to is yourself.

Practice self-love first by simply being kind to yourself, and reminding yourself that it’s progress over perfection.

Practicing self-love can be taking good care of yourself. Taking care of your physical and mental health.

Practicing self-love can just be being self-aware on what your boundaries are and standing firm on them.

Because when you give yourself love, you take care of yourself. And when you take care of yourself, it’s so much easier to give as much as we want to others.

Feel free to read the blog post on self-care tips for more self-love!

Take a SMALL STEP

Here are some small steps you can take to get started on these practices. Then, when you’re ready, focus on mastering each one! Here are the small steps:

1. Self-Talk – write down 5 positive affirmations that you’ll regularly say to yourself. Put these affirmations in a wall where you regularly can see it.
2. Self-Dates – take yourself on a date! Whether that’d be a walk outside, or eat at at a restaurant, or go to the movies… go somewhere by yourself (but safety first always!)
3. Self-Gifts – buy yourself a gift! Get yourself a notebook, new outfits, jewelry, or even buy yourself flowers if you want to!
4. Self-Service – list down 3 big chores that is on your mind right now.
5. Self-love – list down 3 ideas on how you will practice self-love (e.g. do more self-dates, do more affirmations, spend more time alone)

Self-Care is about caring for yourself!

Self-care is literally about taking care of yourself. Taking care of your mind, body, and soul.

We do self-talk so that we are the ones uplifting and encouraging ourselves.

We do self-dates so that we discover more of who we are.

We do self-gifts so that you can show thought to yourself.

We do self-service so that you make life easier for yourself later on.

And we do self-love so that you know that you are worth taking care of.

You see, self-care isn’t about being luxurious and doing all these fancy activities. It’s not even about spending a lot of money. It’s about making the time and effort to care for ourselves, and treat ourselves the way that we want other people to treat us.

And you even just need to take small steps!

Speaking of small steps, I actually have a book called Small Steps to Progression which you can download for free here, I know you’ll love it!

-Lauren 😊

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Related Articles:

Greatest Self-Care Actions for Every Area of Your Life

How to Put Yourself First & Be the Main Character

How to Invest in Yourself

Easy Self-Care Tips for More Self-Love

5 Self-Care NO-NO’s

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