4 Ways To Try And Prioritize Self-Care In Your Daily Life

This blog is about ways to prioritize self-care

Self-care is not something I am good at in my adult life. When I was in high school I was all about the self-care. My nails were always painted, my hair was always done, cute outfits. This continued into the first few years of college too. I would wake up at 7 am to get ready for my 8:30 job.

But the years of full faces of makeup and self-tanning took a toll on me. I always felt tired and started to compare myself to others. When I moved to Colorado all that changed. I stopped wearing makeup and stopped worrying about wearing sweats outside the house.

While I still like the convenience of not being done up every day, I struggle to feel good about myself. My goal is to create a simpler life, but instead it leads to falling into patterns of not taking care of myself.

As busy adults, it can be easy to prioritize other things over ourselves. Most of the time we are so busy doing things for others that we are too tired to do something for ourselves. That is why is important to try and prioritize self-care in our daily lives.

Here are ways to try and prioritize self-care

Create a 3-step nightly routine

Creating a 3-step nightly routine is a great start to self-care. It is a small list of things that you are doing for yourself.

I get it, I am exhausted by the end of the day too. The last thing I want to do is an extensive self-care routine when I can just fall into bed. But before bed is the best time to get things done. The only one who is keeping you from doing it is yourself.

Having a nightly routine doesn’t need to be anything extensive. Choose 3 important things you want to get done. For me it’s washing my face, brushing my teeth, and taking my medications.

And I know each of those things has multiple steps, but reword it in your mind. By making it simple steps it seems easier to do.

Have a morning routine that does something for you

Morning routines are usually chaotic. Especially if you have to be somewhere early. But by taking a moment for yourself, you are starting the day more relaxed.

For years I would wake up and sit with a cup of coffee for an hour. My rule was not to check my phone and to just enjoy the quiet. But now an hour seems like a long time and I don’t drink coffee anymore. Instead I jump up at the last minute, sit on my phone, and rush to get things done.

I have started to miss my morning routines and feeling refreshed when starting my day. My excuse is always I don’t want to wake up early. But then I started seeing Cecily Bauchmann on TikTok and how she wakes up between 5-6:30 am each day to do her devotionals. This has been motivating me to do the same.

It doesn’t have to be a crazy early time. And you don’t have to do anything special. Wake up an hour or 30 minutes early. Write in a journal, do a devotional, or simply drink some tea. Spend a few minutes by yourself in the quiet to start your day. You will notice the difference.

Spend time outside in the sun

Spending time outside is great for your mental and physical health. Vitamin D will help so much with that seasonal depression we all seem to have.

There are so many days when I wake up early to go to work and see someone outside on a walk. The weather is nice and it makes me want to do the same. But I never did. Instead I would stay inside and wonder what it the weather was like.

When I started my new desk job, my boss encouraged me to take breaks and walk around. So I started taking breaks throughout the day and would walk around the building. Eventually I started moving my breaks to walking outside.

Since starting this, I have noticed a difference in coming back to work. I feel more refreshed and less overwhelmed with the things I need to get done. On days I work from home, I sit on my porch or walk down the road for tea at the coffee shop.

Add spending time outside to your morning routine. Or just take breaks throughout the day to be in the sun. You will feel more refreshed.

Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day

As much as we all don’t want to admit it, exercise is great for our health.

Lately my goal for exercise isn’t to lose weight or become in shape. Instead I am focusing on moving my body.

You have probably experienced that feeling of laziness. Where you sit down at the end of the day and feel bad you didn’t exercise. Or you just feel bad about yourself.

You don’t have to do an extensive workout to get rid of that feeling. Just spend 30 minutes doing a simple activity such as yoga or barre. Walking has many benefits and is a great way to move your body.

The goal isn’t to create a sweat. Just move your body and you will feel so much better.

Bonus: create a weekly self-care reset

I know I am talking about daily self-care, but having a weekly reset can also help.

Sundays are the days when I do the self-care tasks that I don’t have time for during the week. These tasks usually take more time and effort but I am glad when I do them.

Some weekly self-care items I like to do:

• Facemasks or eye masks
• Painting my nails
• Self-tanning
• Hair masks

Once again, it doesn’t need to be anything extreme. Just things you want to do each week and never get around to. Spend a few hours on Sundays taking care of yourself

Trying to prioritize self-care can be easy

You don’t need a lot of time to prioritize yourself. Just by spending a few minutes each day you can take care of yourself. It is important that you do it for your mental and physical health. You will also learn to value yourself and have more energy for others.