3 Must Haves For A Successful Self-Care Strategy
Do you have a game plan for practicing self-care? If you're looking for ways to increase self-care I have three must- haves to include to help you create a self-care strategy and stay on track. I'm sharing some of my personal favorites in this blog post but please use this as a guide, as the beauty in self-care is discovering what works best for you. Below are three essentials to ask yourself are you doing these to make self-care a success.
#1: Reset
Everyday that you wake up is like God giving you a reset button. So why not be intentional about hitting reset if needed for your self-care. Often the biggest shifting that can take place is in our attitudes or the way we think (mindset). Like you may have a negative thought "I'm to busy for self-care" but resetting your thinking toward "I make my self-care a priority, I'm worth it" will allow you to begin to move toward more love for yourself. Also, do be flexible with self-care practices, some times you will need to adjust when things are not working, don't be afraid to shift or start something new.
#2: Reward
The first level of motivation comes from this feeling of "what's in it for me?" If the health benefits of self-care alone is not enough then try adding a reward to kick you into gear. A reward will give you something to look forward to after taking action or accomplishing a certain self-care goal. Just make sure it's a healthy reward, like after a workout try to avoid binge eating ice-cream, potato chips, or like me getting a white chocolate mocha from Starbucks (and yes I know how unhealthy it is-I'm working on it). Instead try a healthy snack like a smoothie, your favorite fruit, melons are great because of the water contained, maybe even a spur of chocolate. Rewards that work best as motivators are:
immediate
within 2 weeks
one month
every 90 days
Challenge yourself to see how long you can go before needing a reward. But what you are creating is like a self-care payday. My favorite pay-day rewards are to invest in rich experiences with the people I love which looks like saving up to enjoy my favorite restaurant, spa, or Oceanside getaway.