Self-care can often be intimidating, especially when you have a busy schedule. It's difficult to carve out time to focus on yourself when you are constantly taking care of others' needs, but self-care doesn't have to be intimidating! Here are three easy steps to incorporate self-care into your busy schedule: Recognize your needs, schedule time, and focus on the little things.
Step 1: Recognize your needs
The first, and arguably the most important step to practicing self care is identifying your needs. With a busy schedule, it is easy to get caught up in the needs of others and put your own on the back burner. To effectively practice self care think about yourself and what would benefit you the most. Even something as small as taking a bubble bath once a week can do wonders.
Step 2: Schedule it!
Even with the best of intentions, self care is often forgotten about or pushed off. Step 2 ensures that you get the alone-time you need by building it into your schedule. This will help you stay not track and enables you to control how long, how often, and how consistently your self care routine in practiced.
Step 3: Little things make a big difference
Self care can be intimidating when you first hear it. You might think that it requires a vacation or long outings that interfere with your schedule. Don't worry! Self care can actually be more effective if you practice little things more frequently! Even just stretching for 10 minutes every morning can have a significant impact on your productivity for the day and make you feel SO much better. Remember that scheduling time for self care should not create stress, but should relieve it.