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self care

Featured Post Happiness Guide Self Development

5 Helpful Self Care Ideas To Get You Started

We’re all caught up in a super busy week, every week. With our schedules full and our expectations high, we get swamped with tasks and to dos every monday. Constant stress hurts our immune system and can lead to a mental health problems, if we don’t take better care of us. If you feel unbalanced and stressed out, it is time to take better care of yourself, even though you are busy.

Because I used to be this overwhelmed and stressed out mess, I started to set clear boundaries and implemented self care ground rules. To help you guys, I wrote self care guide to get started on your self care.

What is self care and how does it benefit you?

Self-care lies in the simple question what you need this week in order to feel happy. It’s a choice to engage in activities that help you gain an optimal level of health and happiness.

But in contrast to popular belief, self care is not only bubble bath and getting your nails done. It also includes the psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual components of your well-being.

Self care is the time of the week you take off to tend to your dreams and needs. Recharging in a way you need to, with your friends or getting some alone time. It means incorporating workouts of any form into your week, so you feel confident about your body and proud of your discipline. It means taking time off to tend your hobbies and nurturing your dream. Self care means taking the time to do the activities that fulfill your current needs.

6 Examples How To Practice Self Care

To show you what I mean by practicing self care, I wrote down the mist important pillars of self care. These are easy to weave into your life, when you are just starting out to create a self care routine.

Schedule time to recharge:

✓ allow yourself alone time with no impulses, just you.

✓ tend to your hobbies that make you happy and get you into “flow”-mode

✓ or recharge with your friends and nurture your relationships

Get rid of toxic people:

✓ allow yourself to end friendships that stress or hurt you.

✓ it’s okay to not answer your ex’s texts or to keep away from people that make you feel bad about yourself. If it doesn’t make you happy, it doesn’t serve you.

Learn to say no:

✓ if you’re given a task, and you already know it’s too much to handle, it’s self care to say no.

✓ if a friend wants to see you, but you had a really bad day, it’s self care to say no and take time for yourself instead.

Make time to exercise:

✓ any form of movement that gets you sweaty and your heart rate up will release endorphins in your brain and make you more content

✓ working out will make you feel more confident in your body

Learn something new:

✓ broaden your skills attending a language school, cooking or a painting or drumming course.

✓ change your habits up to ensure your personal growth.

Clean up your flat:

✓ yes, cleaning your life and workspace is self care! Imagine how much better you feel, spending your sunday at home, in your tidy flat!

✓ decluttering your space truly declutters your mind

I have made self care the most important part of planning my week. Next to meeting all the requirements at work and keeping up with your social life, taking time to do what makes you happy and balanced is vital and will lead to a happier version of you.

I wish you a beautiful week ahead, with loads of self care time scheduled!!

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Afterschool Advice Lifestyle & Travel Self Development

How To Quit Negative Self Talk When You Are An Overthinker

Why don’t we take on opportunities sometimes, even though our gut feeling deeply wants us too? Negative self talk.

It happens within seconds in your head, without warning crushing your positive impulse to take necessary action on whatever it is, that you would love to do. Whether you are working on a project that is important to you, holding a presentation, applying for a job or putting your hand up in class – self deprecating thoughts can crush dreams within the blink of an eye.

We all have experienced negative thoughts, but often many of us don’t notice when a thought repeated too often becomes a thought pattern, effectively eroding our self esteem. Negative self talk can sound a little something like this:

I don’t / I can’t ..
I’m not good enough ..
If only I had..
I suck at …
I don’t deserve..
I can’t get anything right.
I shouldn’t even start..

And sadly it mostly happens when we are about to try something amazing! Like daring to voice a thought, building a project, applying for this one position we are dreaming of or wanting a better life in general. All of these steps need courage and involve taking a risk. Greeting every idea with negative feedback from yourself will not only crush your self confidence but also quickly become a habit. A little infusion of self doubt can sometimes be inevitable but manageable, if you know how to direct it towards a positive outcome. In this post I want to show you a technique that has helped me tremendously with getting rid of my negative self talk and building my self esteem.

1. The second you notice your negative thoughts, say „stop“ in your thoughts and replace them with positive affirmations.

This technique needs active practice but you will want to hug me after a week, because like every mantra and thought pattern, „stopping“ negative self talk will also turn into an automatic mechanism. So now, when I am doubting my post ideas or keeping myself from putting my hand up in class, in my head it sounds a little like this:

„I am not g- STOP. I can do it. I managed to do x I can also do y.“

By actively stopping your negative thoughts and replacing it with one or more positive qualities of yourself, you are not only preventing your self esteem from getting harmed but actually building it each time you are using this technique. Love yourself enough to actively start changing the way you talk to yourself. Pamper your self esteem like it is starving! Go overboard with it and it will just be enough.

2. Make a list of your amazing qualities and what you like about yourself.

In order to believe the compliments you are giving to yourself you shouldn’t end the affirmation with „I can do it“. It is a great start but in order to truly believe you can, tell yourself why. Are you great at coming up with ideas? Really efficient at organizing or are you a great student? Make a list of your favorite traits, small and big achievements and also ask your friends what they love about you! And each time you talk down to yourself, actively stop it and replace it with your collection of positive traits and achievements.

3. Always ask yourself how realistic your negative self talk actually is.

So, you don’t want to upload this picture on facebook, because „they“ will find it ridiculous? Now take a step back to look at that thought. Actually rationally look at it. Now ask yourself: who actually is „they“? Do they really exist as people in your life, or is it self doubt becoming reality? Take a step back from your inner dialogue and analyze what you are actually saying to yourself. In this case: Will they think it is ridiculous? And if so, why? You will notice that most of the time, there are no answers to these questions, because these stem from fantasies and deeply rooted fears playing out only in our heads. I cannot even remember that someone ever laughed at a picture of mine! But still, I used to fear it every time before I started to notice that those are only fantasies.

Be good to yourself!

The first step to loving yourself more and treating yourself better is keeping track of the dialogue in your head. How you talk to yourself is how you feel about yourself. Let it become a habit to stop negative self talk, analyze where it comes from and replace it with positive affirmations. You will feel a beautifully positive difference in no time, I promise! <3

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