Lately, I’ve been thinking about why people oftentimes struggle to make self-care a priority in their lives. I mean it’s not like people don’t want to feel better and take better care of themselves, right? What I discovered is it basically comes down to two reasons and I found the perfect solution to them both.
By now we all know the importance of taking care of ourselves. We know that self-care and healthcare go hand in hand. That by taking steps every day to ensure our minds, bodies, and spiritualities are being well cared for, we are happier and healthier. And we are also better prepared to support and care for those we love.
So why then, knowing all we know, do we still fail to actually practice self-care?
Are you new to self-care? Then read this first – A beginner’s guide to self-care
Table of Contents
Two Reasons Self-Care Doesn’t Happen:
- Not enough time
- Lacking a plan
Not Enough Time
This is basically everyone’s built-in excuse for why things get left undone. I mean we all feel like we don’t have enough time in the day to get to all the things. But, even when we do have time, without a plan, we waste that time trying to figure out what it is we should be doing.
Lacking a Plan
Not having a clear plan in place causes us to waste precious time and really messes up our productivity. If we spend all our time trying to decide what we should do and how to get it done before we realize it, our time is gone and we have nothing to show for it.
What’s the solution?
Well, the solution is easier than you may think and it doesn’t require you to do much at all.
Make a plan
It begins with making a plan. I am a huge advocate for using a planner. I prefer paper planners because I really get satisfaction out of writing stuff down. If you like digital planners, then use one. Either way, you need to make some kind of plan for your life.
Your planner is more than just for writing in when you have an appointment or someone’s birthday coming up. Your planner can be used to write down To-Do Lists, Meal Plans, Shopping Lists, Tracking Your Moods, Gratitude Journaling, Routines, Self-Care, Cleaning Schedules, and more.
I recently started a self-care planner that is independent of my regular daily planner. I love it because it helps me focus entirely on my wellness routine and nothing else. Each day I focus on a different aspect of self-care and rotate through them throughout the week. I fill in exactly what I am going to do each day so I’m ready to go. Wanna see the planner I use? It’s this one.
Adding my self-care routine into my daily plans, helps me remember to do it, and ensures I have time to get it done.
You can do this too.
Prioritize
Next, you have to make a commitment to making self-care a priority. If you always view it as optional, then you will be more likely to put it off. When things get tough, you might decide you can’t do anything more and push it until tomorrow. But then whatever happens tomorrow causes you to push it off again, until the next thing you know, you’re in bad shape mentally and physically.
If you look at it as something indulgent or discretionary, you won’t feel like it’s that important. You’ll figure it can wait until you’re not as busy or not as tired.
But…
If you prioritize self-care, you will not put it off.
Do you put off brushing your teeth or washing off your make-up? Do you put off eating healthy and visiting your doctor regularly?
No. Because you know how important those things are for your health and well-being.
Changing the way you view self-care is the key to finding time to actually do it.
What Should Go On My Self-Care Plan?
Sometimes figuring out what to put into our self-care routine can be difficult and frustrating, not to mention, time-consuming.
I thought about this too. And here’s my solution.
Each month, starting in August, I am going to send you a ready to go Self-Care Calendar. It will include a different activity for each day of the month. All you need to do is sign up for our newsletter, and I will send it to you automatically straight to your inbox a few days before the new month begins. You can sign up using the form further down this page.
A Simple Solution to Self-Care
This is the Simple Solution to Self-Care and addresses both the above-mentioned reasons we skip our self-care even when we know how important it is.
- Not enough time
- Lacking a plan
This monthly done for you self-care calendar will:
- Save you time in planning out your routine
- Offer you varied activities to meet all your self-care needs
- Take the guesswork out of what you should be doing
- Keeps things interesting so you look forward to doing them
Recap
Are you ready to stop making excuses for why you don’t take care of yourself? This self-care calendar is all you need to save time while still getting in your much-needed wellness care.
This calendar gives you:
- Time
- A plan
The time you save by using this self-care calendar can be used instead to actually complete the activities. Plus, by having the activities planned out for you, it makes it easy to have a variety of self-care activities in your plan. Having a varied self-care routine is essential to ensure you take care of your whole self and you won’t get bored.
Don’t wait another day to start taking your health seriously. Lower your stress levels, be more productive, enjoy your surroundings, be the best version on yourself you can possibly be.
Self-care is the key to a happy healthy life. Grab our simple solution to self-care calendar and start loving yourself.
Oh yeah, and if you are like me and prefer using a handwritten planner, just take the ideas off the calendar and write them into your own planner – easy peasy.
Here’s that form I was telling you about. Just fill it out to subscribe to our weekly newsletters which will include a new Simple Solution to Self-Care Calendar a few days before the start of each month. And for signing up, you will also receive a copy of our 15 Positive Affirmation Cards absolutely free.