It’s said that women tend to be the bearers of the “mental load”. From working, looking after families, life admin, taking care of the home, more often than not daily tasks fall on the shoulders of women. It’s important to find some time for self-care, whatever that looks like for you.
Everyday habits shape and define your health. Knowing the best ways to practice self-care means building a better connection with your body and mind. From early morning stretches to staying hydrated, there are so many habits that encompass a healthy self-care routine.
There are so many ways to incorporate a sense of balance into your life through rituals. Whether you’re working, studying or retiring this year, it’s worth learning a few of the core components to a healthy self-care routine.
Three key parts to a healthy self-care routine
Nutrition
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is one of the most significant parts of building a better routine.
In popular culture, there’s a lot of pressure on women to eat certain foods or follow fad diets. The problem is compounded by toxic diet culture on social media platforms like TikTok. Don’t give into any societal pressure, though: the best thing you can do for yourself is to ensure that the food you eat helps your mind and body to feel good.
Speak to a nutritionist if you’re not sure where to start, but remember to eat fruit, vegetables, and include key nutrients in your main meals too. Hydration is an important aspect of health and nutrition, so don’t neglect to drink water.
Relaxation
Purposefully making time to relax is critical, no matter how busy your daily routine might be. From sitting down with a book for five minutes to pampering yourself with hair vitamins for healthy growth, how you choose to relax is ultimately up to you.
Personal relaxation looks different to everyone. You don’t need to indulge in luxury treatments or even lie down to relax if that’s not your style – you can simply sit and decompress if that works. If you’re someone who’s always on the go and you find it difficult to settle down, there are plenty of relaxing and calming exercises to learn.
You might prefer to relax through movement. From dancing in the kitchen to cycling steadily through the park, you can reset your mind with gentle movement too. Along with relaxing, make sure you’re getting enough sleep at night too.
Exercise
Finally, try not to forget that doing some exercise could help you to see a monumental shift in your energy levels, motivation, and productivity at work too. Multiple scientific studies have proven the link between exercise and the release of hormones in the body responsible for making us feel calm and happy, including serotonin.
If you’ve not followed an exercise plan before, it’s important to start small. To start out with running, you could go for a quick stroll at lunchtime and build yourself up from there. Or, for something a little bit gentler on your joints, swimming or yoga could be fantastic.
Conclusion
For any woman, self-care is about much more than just diet, movement, and health.
However, these are the fundamental components to set yourself up for success. When you build on your movement and relaxation, you’ll feel more enriched by socialisation, creativity, and enjoying the little things in life too.
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