Terri Ramsey Beavers One of the most important components of a good self-care routine is taking care of your mind as much as your body. The two are halves of a complete whole—happiness requires that both mind and body are in tune and healthy. When your mind suffers, so does your body, and vice-versa. It’s important to carve out some time each day to take care of your mind, and ensure you’re taking the right steps to make sure your life is as peaceful and happy as possible.
Let’s take a look at a few ways to create a ten-minute self-care routine for each day. We’ll cover some important components of mental health and how you can be more aware of how you’re feeling. Learning to say no might not even be something you would have ever thought of, but it can make a big difference!
Use A Daily Prayer App
Self-care can mean practicing daily prayer, but in our fast-paced modern world, this is often easier said than done. A daily prayer app can help you remember to pray, as well as provide you with prayers you might not have used before. Sometimes, praying can seem a bit monotonous (or even ineffective) if you’re reciting the same things every day. Mix things up a bit and take your prayers with you while you’re on the go.
Prayer apps are usually free or low-cost, and are the perfect way to keep your spiritual wellbeing in mind. Have a busy schedule? No problem. Set custom reminders. Not sure about prayer apps? Try this daily prayer app whether you’re a first-timer or a seasoned vet.
Practice Gratitude Daily
Daily gratitude is a huge component of self-care. Being grateful for the people, opportunities, and events in our lives can help us focus on what matters and provide reminders of what it means to be compassionate and empathetic.
You’ve probably heard about practicing gratitude from one self-help guru or another, and while it might be something that’s overused, that doesn’t mean it isn’t important. Grateful people are often happier in their lives, but why?
Being grateful creates a more optimistic outlook on life itself and the challenges that come your way. If you’re grateful for your challenges, you’re more likely to learn an important lesson and grow from them. Though, it’s pretty difficult to be grateful during hard times, you should still try to reflect on what you’re thankful for even when things seem dark or like they’ll never end.
Being grateful teaches you to see things from other peoples’ perspectives as well. This is called empathy, and it’s arguably one of the most important emotions to understand and master. Empathy creates a bridge. Let’s say someone you love is suffering. We’ll use the bridge and river analogy.
The river is their suffering. Maybe they’re going through a breakup, a job change, or some other stressful event. If you have sympathy for that person, you’re watching the river with them, but from your own riverbank. If you have empathy for them, you’ve built a bridge to the other side so you can see the river from their perspective to better understand how they’re feeling.
It’s easy to begin practicing gratitude. You can simply make time to recite or write down the things you’re thankful for at the beginning of each day (or at the end before bed).
Be Aware Of Your Mental Health
A self-care routine would be incomplete without a mental health plan. Being aware of your mental health is important because you’ll know when you’re not quite feeling like yourself. If you suffer from a condition like depression or anxiety, understanding your symptoms can help you manage them better when they appear.
Start by writing down your symptoms and triggers. What things make you feel sad? Angry? Happy? Don’t just write down negative emotions, but be sure to separate negative and positive ones into their own lists. That way, you can see what symptoms accompany each emotion and plan accordingly.
Maybe you get really tired when you’re sad. Or, when you’re angry, maybe you tend to yell a lot. It’s important to know these things both for your sake and for the people around you.
Jot Down Your Favorite Places
Do you have a favorite park, shopping center, or room you like to retreat to? Maybe you like the stillness of a forest or the hustle and bustle of a mall. Sometimes, you just need to get away for a bit, and that doesn’t have to mean traveling across the country for a full-fledged vacation.
Write down your favorite places to go when you’re feeling upset, happy, or worried. Maybe it’s just the dining room with your headphones on, or your local reservoir. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy! Then, when you’re feeling x emotions, you can visit x places to calm your mind.
Plan For Quiet Time Every Day
When you’re making a self-care routine, do not forget about quiet time. You absolutely must make time for yourself at the end or the beginning of the day. Find a place that’s safe and quiet and just breathe. Reflect on your day. Plan for the next day. Be grateful. Be mindful. Take a few moments just for you.
Learn To Say No
Many self-care guides focus on meditation, prayer, eating right, sleeping well, etc., for well-being, but one of the most important components is setting healthy boundaries. To do that, you’ll need to start by learning to say no.
It’s ok to say no to loved ones, supervisors, and others. Saying no just means that you don’t want to or are incapable of meeting their demands, and that’s ok! If a project or request is simply too much, say no. You don’t have to let people run all over you, and learning to say no will show the people around you that you have important personal boundaries they should respect.