If you subscribe to the understanding of how important self care is, but are just not sure how to do it, this article will give you some really simple ideas to start to adopt to elevate your self care.
Why Sunday Self Care? Well, the truth is, self care should not be reserved for just one day of the week, but if it was, Sunday is the best day to kick start a week full of conscious self care and self-awareness.
What is Self Care Sunday?
Self Care Sunday does exactly what is says on the bottle – optimize Self Care on Sunday! Of course, it is the day that heads up the week (unless you live in Israel!) but more than that, it is the perfect day to earmark efforts to step back and relish a little time on yourself. A day to ‘see’ you and celebrate every inch of your being.
Sunday is odd for many as it is not yet the weeK to come but the weekend has almost passed. Bittersweet. For many, Sunday is a day that brings happiness and dread.
You can change all of that by introducing a personalized Self Care Sunday routine and change this into a day of indulgence for you to help you feel energized, refreshed, valued, and happy.
With the right mindset and commitment towards this lifestyle habit, not only will Sundays feel more manageable and fulfilling, your week that follows will be supercharged and more productive.
Self Care is as necessary as drinking water and the most effective way to avoid burnout and energy depletion.
What is Self-Care?
What Does It Mean When We Use The Term Self Care?
The literal definition for self care is ‘the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one’s own health’. Such self care encompasses taking care of your mind, body, and soul with some people adopting this into their day-to-day life with the type of dietary choices, exercise, sleep, and social and health care choices they make.
Why Is Self Care Important For You?
You know the oxygen mask theory right? Make sure yours is on first before you can help others. Similarly, if you don’t practice Self Care and deplete your energy and life source, you are not turning up 100% for yourself or anyone else. This may negatively affect your life within relationships, your career, and of course your own mental health. Feeling good about yourself will radiate outwards. When you feel good, you have more to give and in turn, will naturally recieve more in return,
Top 10 Benefits Of Practising Self Care
Good Self Care can be a game changer in the path of life to help build self-esteem, self-awareness, resilience, and confidence and avoid burnout. It can benefit every cell in your body and elevate your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual health in the most effective and natural way possible.
- Increase self-awareness, self-esteem and confidence
- Helps to manage stress and anxiety
- Boost your immune system
- Increase productivity at work
- Avoid burnout and exhaustion
- Improve social and personal relationships
- Increase happiness and general well being
- Prevent serious illness and disease
- Elevate what you are able to give others
- Discover who you really are
And the best part about the daily dose – there are absolutely no negative side effects!
The Science Behind The Benefits of Self Care
Truth is, that this is not just some pie-in-the-sky, wishy-washy spiritual idea….no, there is real data to back this up. Don’t take my word for it – read the evidence!
Self-care is an important approach to the management of long-term health conditions and to preventing ill health by living a healthy lifestyle. The concept has been used to a limited extent in relation to mental health, but it overlaps with the related concepts of recovery, self-management, and self-help. These related concepts all entail individuals having more choice and control over treatment and a greater role in recovery and maintaining their health and well-being.
The findings of this study suggest that self-compassion in older adults protects them from developing mental health and sleep disturbance symptoms while enhancing their life satisfaction, self-care, and usual activities. Therefore, interventions fostering self-compassion may benefit older adults’ mental health and quality of life.
And there are many more….
40 Great Self Care Sunday Ideas To Increase Quality Of Life
So I think by now, we can all agree, Self Care is THE way forward when it comes to elevating your quality of life! It really is the gift that keeps on giving. So let’s take a look at some of the practical steps you can take to easily introduce Self Care into your day-to-day life by kick-starting it on that odd say of the week – Sunday!
1. Unplug!
Conduct a Digital Detox. Start your Self Care adoption by making a real commitment to creating some quiet ‘space’ to start exploring, being, and listening to your inner self. It is so easy to be distracted by online pull-ins but the best way is to take a step back. It will give you both the space you need to begin your Self Care journey, and reduce the levels of cortisol often generated by the stress that digital platforms can generate.
2. Prioritize Sleep!
Sleep is the most important thing that you can do for your mind, body, and soul so make sure you catch up on your sleep! With the crazy schedules, we keep in today’s modern world and the familiar concept of being glued to screens (that is everyone by the way not just teenagers!!) it is super easy to get behind on sleep. However, healthy sleep patterns are essential for optimal physical and mental health. A great idea is to make sure your bedroom is optimized for restful sleep and keep your phone or screen out of your bedroom. Sleep is the basis to grow everything else, Adequate sleep isn’t a luxury but an absolute priority and necessity.
3. Go for a walk
Just move your body and stimulate your mind.
4. Visit your favourite cafe
Something so Bohemium about sitting in your fave cafe and sipping coffee or whatever your poison is. And people watching – you can lose hours of time letting your imagination run wild.
5. Meet a friend
Good friends are like gold dust – precious and hard to find. Prioritize a meet-up as one would prioritize personal hygiene – it’s super important!
6. Get your paints out
Just paint. Unleash your imagination and just go for it. Doesn’t matter about the end results, it is the process that counts.
7. Bake a cake
Making cookies or baking can be incredibly therapeutic but if you don’t want to eat them all, package them up and share them with others.
8. Do something creative
Making and creating is food for the soul. From drawing to knitting, clay work to crochet…let your hands do the talking and go with what resonates with you.
9. Read a book
Reading is healthy and underrated. It can be done anywhere and as long as you have a good story to get lost in, can be a beautiful way to take time out and rediscover yourself.
10. Light some candles
Make sure you buy candles with a fragrance that lights up your life. Fire is passion, a giver of life and energy. Find your glow and care for yourself and your emotional healing.
11. Have a bath with lots of bubbles
Who doesn’t like a bubble bath? Decadent and fun.
12. Make a healthy breakfast
Starting the day off in a healthy way will allow you to continue like this for the remainder of the day and feel good about what you have consumed for the day.
13. Create a bucket list
Go crazy on this and write down all the things you would love to do, even if you have no way at this stage of knowing how to achieve them.
14. Make that call you have been putting off
Ticking things off the to-do list, especially those that we procrastinate on can leave us feeling bad.
15. Meditate
They should teach this in schools. This is the best way to jump off the merry-go-round of life for a short while to recharge and re-energize. Do a guided meditation.
16. Listen to a podcast
This is a great way to drift off and escape into something interesting.
17. Listen to some music and dance!
Dancing can awaken the warrior spirit in you. Never stop dancing…
18. Start a gratitude journal
Reconnect to all the beautiful things you have in life right now…the grass isn’t always greener on the other side it is about how you water the grass where you are now.
19. Put clean fresh sheets on your bed
This will make you feel like a queen!
20. Bake bread
There is something orgasmic about the smell of freshly baked bread. And I am not exaggerating. But the art of breadmaking takes trial and error, so start practicing your artisan breadmaking skills on your Sunday Self Care.
21. Volunteer
Being altruistic is good for your soul and helping others makes you feel good. It is the most positive cycle to elevate feeling good about yourself.
22. Learn something
Online, hands-on, or however you choose, learning something new opens pathways in your brain
23. Have a go at Wordle, Sudoku, or Crossword
Boost your cognitive energy by tackling a thought-provoking challenge. You will feel great if you manage to nail the answer also.
24. Get your nails done
Beautifully manicured nails can make your hands look lovely and help boost your confidence by feeling fab about yourself.
25. Give yourself a facial
The ultimate is to treat yourself to your favourite beautician but, if you can’t a DIY facial can provide awesome results. You can use your fave products or, create some yourself.
26. Do yoga
10-15 minutes of yoga can recharge your batteries like you wouldn’t believe. There are many YT videos so doing it at home is perfect. My favourite is Adrienne on You Tube – there really is no one like her.
27. Write something creative
Even if you have never done it before – just write. There is something very creative and rewarding about stringing words together and truth is, even bad writing is better than no writing.
28. Start a hobby
Is there something you are passionate about and keep putting it off? Now is the time. Make Self Care Sunday THE day to make that jump into something you love.
29. Go to the cinema
So many of us are locked into believing that Netflix is the only place to watch a movie – not the case. Cinemas are fast becoming a thing of the past (shame) but can be a great way to watch a movie on the big screen.
30. Just stop. Slow down and breathe.
Exactly this. Bringing some awareness to the fact you are stopping and slowing down and sit for 5 minutes and do nothing.
31. Plan your next getaway
Who doesn’t like a cheeky weekend away? And if you plan ahead, you can be super organised and make sure you get the best deals on everything.
32. Do some gardening
Planting and watching something grow is rewarding at the moment and then for the time after as you watch the fruits of your labor grow.
33. Organise and declutter space
Whether you are creating yourself a craft area, rearranging your wardrobe or simply scaling back, when everything is organised, you feel better.
Link to the article in my blog
34. Create Pinterest boards.
Spend some time getting lost in Pinterest. This is both an inspiring and creative platform where you can lose hours in.
35. Do some online shopping.
You don’t have to go crazy here but a purchase of a new pair of shoes (that works for me every time) or some favourite toiletries could work a treat.
36. Take a nap – guilt-free
Sometimes just a 20-minute power nap is all it takes to get you back on your feet. History of the siesta to escape the hottest part of the day says it all here and napping has become synonymous with recharging hence sleep pods at the Huffington Post!
37. Sign up for the online course
There are literally hundreds of courses online and you can learn anything that speaks to you.
38. Buy yourself some fresh flowers
When it was reported that Elton John had spent almost half a million dollars on flowers because he could – maybe there is something in it? And whilst we don’t all have such a budget, there is nothing quite like fresh flowers to stimulate the senses.
39. Contact a friend you haven’t seen for ages
Being social cannot only make you feel good in the short term but has also been proven to promote longevity and add years to your life.
40. Get outdoors and into nature. Hike that mountain.
Fresh air is the elixir we all need to sustain a healthy body. Getting out there gets the blood pumping around your body and brings some colour to your cheeks. And if you manage to get to the top (and it isn’t a must) you can enjoy the cherry on the cake!
The Take Home: Self Care Sunday
Whilst we talk about Self Care Sunday, all of the above can (and should be) practiced and enjoyed regularly every other day as well as Sunday. We focus on Sunday as this is a great day to take time to focus and set your compass for the week ahead. There is one every week so this is a great day to anchor to the process of Self Care and ensure you stay on track!
And these ideas are not just Self Care ideas for women, these are for every single human on the planet regardless of gender. These are Self Care ideas for the soul.
Why not even try just one? Check-in with how it makes you feel and see if it resonates. Great if it does. If not, try something else.
I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like a bubble bath, light candles or a walk in nature. These are the essential life energy that keeps us rocking and rolling in life.
