40 Self-Care Ideas for a Healthy Mind and Body

Life sometimes can be exhausting.

We try to be nice to everyone around us, taking care of their needs but often forget about ours.

You stay late in the office, offering an helping hand to your colleagues, but you seem to forget you need a rest too. Every time, you let your family decide where to go for a holiday, but you seem to forget there is a place you have been longing for.

But no one will realize your need when you don’t speak up. You will gradually find that no one, not even yourself, is taking care of your needs as you are so busy taking care of others.

One day, you will eventually feel exhausted.

So, sometimes, you need to learn to care about yourself.

Loving Others is Important, But Don’t Forget to Love Yourself

Self-care is a concept about maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself, in other words, self-love.

Sometimes we try to meet the needs of everyone around us but forget about ours. But what self-care means is to be conscious about our own needs, both physical and mental. Eating well, exercising regularly, meditating, journaling. These are all self-care actions.

Self-care is so important in improving our well-beings and the quality of life. During the process, we do whatever is good to our body, to satisfy our needs and desires. This helps us avoid fatigue, stress, anxiety, and worry. To put it simply, self-care makes us feel satisfied and happy.

The ultimate goals of self-care is to maintain a good physical and mental health. With this, we will be more able to help and support others and therefore we will have more healthy relationships with others. Self-care also teaches us to give ourselves a break off from the tiring work. This might also help us to attain a work-life balance.

Here we have some ideas to help you practice self-care. Start right now!

10 Self-care Ideas for the Body

1. Take a few deep breaths. Get yourself oxygenated. Breath into your abdomen and breath out the air from your stomach and chest.
2. Go for a walk under sunshine. Especially when it’s cold. The warmth from the glowing sun often makes people feel better.
3. Run for a few minutes. Let yourself sweat. It’s the easiest way to exercise.
4. Take a quick nap. 10 to 20 minutes will do. Make up your sleep debt.
5. Have a good laugh. Watch a comedy or have a nice chat with great friend.
6. Look at the green and the blue. Grassland. Ocean. They do good to our eyes and clam our body.
7. Wake up at 6. Enjoy the morning breeze and the slow pace.
8. Make a small change to your diet. Drink an extra glass of water, or have a vegetarian meal. Do a body detox.
9. Do a massage. Incorporate essential oils for your massage. Remove your tiredness and let your skin breathe.
10. Be still for a few minute. Let your body rest. Stay still. Breathe slow. Move slow.

10 Self-care Ideas for the Mind

1. Take another route to work. Breaking your routine in small ways makes your ordinary day special.
2. Wander in the city. Discover the other side of the city. Look for its beauty you have never noticed.
3. Unplug for an hour. Switch everything to airplane mode. Disconnect from the technology. Bring yourself back to basics.
4. Get out of your comfort zone. Do something you have never done before. Like talking to a stranger.
5. Keep an journal. Write down your thoughts and whatever you find interesting. Record your day with words.
6. Have a self-date. Spend some time doing something you really like. Watch a movie, visit a museum, or enjoy the nature.
7. Dine alone. Eat whatever you would like to eat. Forget about the calories for a moment. Enjoy the environment.
8. Buy something new for the house. Refresh your home. Make it bright and new.
9. Go cloud-watching. Relax and watch the sky. Perhaps with a bottle of fresh fruit juice.
10. Do a mini-declutter. Recycle something from your house that you barely use.

10 Self-care Ideas for Work-life Balance

1. Take a random day off. Have a day off without any planning or purpose. Just to be off from work.
2. Plan for a weekend holiday. Go for a short trip. Escape from the routine.
3. Get to work early. Avoid the rush hour. This also means you might be able to leave work early.
4. Leave work early. Enjoy some free time when the sun is still there.
5. Eat lunch away from your office. Take a little break. Breathe some fresh air.
6. Have a small chat. Talk about something other than work. This makes your time at work less dull.
7. Turn off work-related email notification. Make off-hour really off-hour.
8. Wear your favorite outfit to work. Boost your happiness by a smart and refreshing appearance.
9. Have some healthy snacks. Supply energy to your body.
10. Listen to soft music. Relieve your stress with a soft background music.

10 Self-care Ideas for Healthy Relationships

1. Speak out your thoughts. Don’t be afraid to say what you really think. No one will understand you unless you speak out.
2. Tell others your expectations. People might fail you. But it’s fine to let them know so that both of you can adjust.
3. Say NO sometimes. If saying yes makes you feel bad.
4. Honor your emotions. Admit them and never try to hide them. They are gifts.
5. Minimize people-pleasing. Unless that’s what you really want to do. You have no responsibility to please anyone.
6. Free from restrictions imposed by others. Take them as advice instead of commands. You’re the only one who is in control of your body and mind.
7. Be open to new things. Don’t be afraid that changes will make you into a different person. Perhaps they lead to a better you.
8. Share your past. No matter it’s wonderful or awful. It’s your past which makes you who you are today.
9. Be patient to others and yourself. Everything takes time. It takes time to quit a habit or to change something. Don’t rush.
10. Leave some room for yourself. No matter what kind of relationship you are in, the most important one is the relationship with yourself. Work on it.