Self-care has been vital during the pandemic. While many of us found a new connection with our health and wellbeing during this time, now over 6 months later, there may be a need to spice up and switch up the rituals we developed at the start of the pandemic. Similar to if you do the exact same workout routine over time, you may hit a plateau, the same can happen with overall self-care.
Learning to cope and thrive during this time may require something different of us each day, as we overcome new challenges and uncertainty in how we work, live, and connect.
The key here is to be in tune with our mind, body, and spirit, and be open to discovering new ways that help us feel safe, nurtured, and healthy.
1. Commit to Your Self-Care
Make self-care a non-negotiable in your day. While how much time you get each day may vary, commit to your wellbeing even if it is just 5 minutes of meditation to calm your mind and reconnect with yourself. Those few moments could give you the vitality and groundedness you need to finish out the day strong rather than depleted.
2. Ask Yourself: “What Do I Need Today?”
This is part of a practice to stay in tune with yourself. Get quiet and ask yourself what you need to feel good, healthy, and balanced today. Your body might be asking of you to have a nutritious meal, a 30 minute run, a zoom yoga class, a calm walk outside in nature, or even a bubble bath. Having a routine is good, but being open to switching it up is important too. For example, I love to have a long meditation in the morning. Yet as the months of the pandemic have worn on, I am finding I need more mini-meditations or breath-work sessions throughout the day to get me through it. So versus an hour long meditation in the morning, 5-10 minute sessions throughout the day are helping me feel more supported and centered at the moment.
3. Connecting with Joy
Joy is a critical ingredient to feeling good and vital. We all have the possibility of connecting with the feeling of joy despite the current challenges we might be facing. This may sound impossible as bills stack up, health scares arise, and you see people around you suffering. Yet, connecting with joy is still very possible. There was a time in your life where you felt joy. If you close your eyes, you can connect with that feeling again, less so the memory. You also have the possibility right now to generate joy, even if just for a moment, by making a conscious effort to infuse it in your day. It could be as simple as stepping outside to feel the sun on your skin, giving your child a hug, making your favorite meal, or listening to your favorite song. Little joys can always be felt if we can look beyond the challenges.
Many of my clients have shared they have felt guilty for having joy during this time, as so many are suffering around the world. We can only be strong and help others, if we can be strong and help ourselves. If we get used to being in a state with zero joy and pure stress and suffering, we will ultimately deplete ourselves. Connecting with a little daily joy helped me out of some of the darkest moments of my life in years past.
4. Developing a Gratitude Practice
Gratitude is extremely powerful and can massively shift our thoughts and energy to a place where we have hope, inspiration, and desire to carry on. No matter how hard things may be, there is always something to be grateful for. When you wake up in the morning and before you go to sleep, bring into awareness 3 things you are grateful for. Start and end your day with gratitude to diffuse the worry, the fear, and connect with truth and love.
5. Focus on Immunity
Self-care keeps our immunity levels up. Immunity consists of our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. Our self-care rituals can take into account not only what we are putting into our bodies and how we are moving our bodies, but also consider what we are putting into our minds, how we are managing our energy, and how we are nurturing our soul.
Consider a “mental” diet of reducing the amount of fear-based news and content you read and listen to. Who do you follow on social media? Do these accounts raise your vibration or put you into comparison mode? Who are you spending time with, virtually or in person? Do these people nurture your soul or drain your energy? If we look at our immunity holistically, we start to see with full awareness how we can adjust our self-care to nurture every part of our being.
Have patience with yourself and your journey. Allow yourself to feel all you need to feel and then do your best to make self-care a sacred practice that takes all of your mind, body, and spirit into account. You may find a constant, a must have in your practice. For me, that is nature. Time outside and connecting with the earth contributes to so many aspects of my health and gives me so much to be grateful for. Let’s remember our happiness is 90% an inside job. Only 10% of our external factors in life contribute to our happiness. We have the ability with self-care rituals to boost our levels of happiness daily, despite the state of the world.