Life nowadays is increasingly competitive, stressful and overwhelming… meaning that it’s easy to overwork ourselves and burn out. Trying to please everyone and make everyone in our lives happy will only lead to us struggling. Self care and taking time for ourselves is not a luxury – it’s a must. The time you take for yourself will allow you to lead a happy, fulfilled and healthy life.
So, here are some helpful tips on how to prioritise yourself and practice self care:
1. Be kind to yourself:
Often, we find it easy to be kind to others but difficult to be kind to ourselves. It is important to acknowledge that you are doing your best. On days where our mental health is not doing well, – try to take time to ourselves and do something that makes us happy.
2.Treat yourself:
Give yourself rewards for all of your hard work. For example, watching an episode of your favourite show, eating your favourite snack or getting your nails done!
3.Be realistic:
If your self expectations and to-do list are too unrealistic and simply not attainable within one day, try identifying the top three most important things you would like to accomplish and split tasks into small, achievable chunks so that you don’t feel overwhelmed. This way, you will still make progress while feeling a sense of achievement.
4.Talk kindly to yourself:
Noticing how you talk to yourself and making sure you talk to yourself in a positive, loving way will do wonders for your self esteem and mental health. This is especially important to do on the days when you feel down.
5.Sleep:
There are countless benefits to good quality sleep and getting enough sleep each night may be noticeable almost immediately. So make sure that you really try your best to get at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.
6.Get off social media:
Whilst social media has countless benefits, it can also negatively impact your mental health and frame of mind. Therefore, it is important to go off social media for a few hours each day and opt for face-to-face interactions instead.
7.Eat right:
Eating unhealthy food or not enough food on a regular basis will lessen your ability to focus and may also contribute to poor mental health. Therefore, it is vital to plan your meals and choose foods that are nutritional and will suit your needs. Choosing the right foods to fuel your body may help you perform better.
8.Discover what YOU want:
Sometimes it can be easy to get swept up by what other people want for you rather than striving for what we individually desire. Just because something matters to someone else, does not mean you need to make it a priority for yourself. Instead, spend time thinking about what you want and what makes you happy and go after those things!
Overall, learning how to prioritise yourself and your own happiness can definitely take time and effort. It’s best to start by taking small steps and incorporating the things that make you happy in your life on a daily basis. After some time, prioritising yourself will become second nature!