The Daily Self Care Checklist with Small Self Care Tips | Muse Health

Before diving into acts of self care, it's important to understand what that term means. Self care is defined as the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s physical health, mental health, or emotional health. Although it seems like a simple concept, the act of self care is overlooked by many due to busy schedules or lack of knowledge. When digging a little deeper into the topic of self care, it is important to add the stipulation that these actions need to be intentional.

That’s where practice comes in. For self care to work, these actions need to become a part of your everyday life. It’s not something that you can do one day a week. Even though it may sound selfish, keeping your physical, mental, and emotional state a top priority allows you to become better equipped to help those around you.

Remember that good self care is a key component in improving mood and reducing anxiety. Once you learn how to have a good and balanced relationship with yourself, many of the roadblocks in your life begin to fall.

While self care sounds like a simple concept, making any change can have its difficulties. One of the best ways to make change is to create a routine that is easy to follow. The basis of self care is to take a 360 degree approach to health. That means feeding your body the right kinds of food, exercising your mind, and tending to your emotions.

Eat a breakfast that makes you feel good

The idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day has been widely accepted. The reasons why breakfast is so beneficial and should become a part of your morning routine is simple: it provides the body with energy it needs to get through the day while also jump starting your metabolism. Without a proper breakfast, your body can still function but as the day continues, you may experience side effects such as a lack of energy or the inability to concentrate for long periods.

And while having breakfast every morning is essential, in order to optimize your experience, the foods you eat should have nutritional value. As simple as it sounds, there are many people who eat breakfasts that could be doing more harm than good. For example, if you tend to run late and swing by a fast food restaurant multiple times a week, your body is consuming excessive amounts of fat and sodium. The same concept applies to those who like to have sweet treats like Pop-Tarts.

In order to start your day on the right foot, make sure to incorporate fruits. Filled with vitamins, fruits are a perfect way to get your metabolism moving while also providing nutrients and minerals to your body.

Some common breakfast fruits are:

• Strawberries
• Bananas
• Blueberries
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Permissions
• Kiwi

Practice meditation

Apart from a nutritious breakfast, another way practice self care and make sure the day starts off on the right note is by incorporating meditation. Meditation is a mental exercise that trains the mind in attention and awareness. Its main objective is to fight against thoughts of negativity by clearing the mind of chatter and white noise.

Practicing meditation has been shown to reduce stress, increase focus, and naturally promotes a sense of calm. Before confronting a busy day, taking the time to make sure that your mind is in the right place increases that chance that you’ll be productive.

Yoga is often viewed as an activity that takes a long time to do. There are several kinds of yoga methods a person can follow. All you need is a quiet place and 10 minutes of time to center yourself. Yoga is not about suppressing emotions but instead finding a way to clear your mind of negative thoughts.

Drink plenty of water

Probably one of the most overlooked and underrated things a person can do for self care is drinking water. The benefits of drinking water are well documented. Water helps provide moisture and hydration to all areas of the body, improving skin quality, immune system functionality, and reducing blood pressure.

Although there are several drink options out there like coffee, tea, or soda, water is an essential part of everyday life. The human body is approximately 60% water meaning that it needs an ample supply for it to function properly. When the body lacks enough water, it can result in dehydration, which could lead to fatigue or loss of body temperature.

For those who suffer from high blood pressure, a lack of water could accelerate symptoms of hypertension.

Water is not the most appealing drink in the world because it doesn’t have a taste. In order to ensure that you intake enough water per day, buy a potable water bottle. With several office builds utilizing purified water stations, bringing a water bottle around with you increases the chances that you’ll drink it.  

If you work from home, set up alerts on your phone to make sure that you drink water every hour. Eventually, it will become a part of your daily routine.

Eat more veggies

A nutritious diet doesn’t stop after breakfast. While it’s ok to have fun snacks and meals every now and then, you should incorporate vegetables into your daily diet. Much like fruit, vegetables are packed with vitamins and minerals that help keep the body running smoothly. Vegetables provide the body with nutrients like folic acid, potassium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber. All of these nutrients are crucial to keeping the body in working shape. For example, fiber helps reduce blood cholesterol levels and also promotes healthy and regular bowel function.

Diets that incorporate veggies have been linked to decreased risk of contracting heart disease, weight maintenance, and protections against certain cancers. What you put into your body is an extremely important form of self care and self love.

Start an evening routine to help get a good night's sleep

While the idea of having an evening routine may sound a little strange, organization and productivity before bed has been shown to lead to better sleep. A routine doesn’t have to include a robust set of steps that leaves you exhausted just thinking about it. An evening routine could be something as simple as decluttering your space half an hour before going to bed. Particularly for those who work where they sleep, the physical act of changing the look of your space before bedtime will help your mind better disassociate the space as a work zone.

Another common evening routine is reading before bed. Books allow the mind to concentrate on a new world or explore the stories of real people. Through this exploration, a person’s mind is stimulated and as they fall asleep, they tend to be at ease because the last thing they did was read.

On a similar note, journaling is considered an effective tool. While journaling can be done at any point of the day, making it part of your evening routine allows you the opportunity to reflect on things that went well and areas that could be improved. Journaling helps with planning for the day ahead while keeping a person accountable for what happened. Gratitude journals are a kind of journaling tactic that helps a person find things in their daily life to feel thankful for. It also helps personal development by bringing in the healthy habit of instilling positive affirmations before bedtime.

The evening routine you decide to partake in should have a relaxing or therapeutic aspect to it. Especially for people who have trouble sleeping, this is the time where you want to engage in an activity that can help you find an internal sense of peace.

Reduce screen time

Potentially tying into your evening routine is the act of reducing screen time. As the world becomes more digital, everything can be done from a cell phone. While it improves convenience, it means that eyes are glued to screens for extended periods of time throughout the day. Constantly being on your phone has been linked to increased anxiety and stress.

Modern technology and social media platforms like Instagram have made social expectations unrealistic yet something that many people strive for. With pressures to look and have a certain lifestyle, it can cause unwanted stress. Taking time away from the screen helps a person reflect on their own life and shift the narrative.

For those who have email accounts linked to their phone, the temptation to check work emails at all times of the night becomes much greater. Reducing your screen time and providing strict guidelines removes the need to always check your phone. If you find yourself getting a lot of marketing emails throughout the night, unsubscribe from those which you are not actively following.

Reducing screen time also promotes better sleep because without light projecting into your eyes, it helps the body naturally relax. Reduced screen time also prevents eye strain.