5 Free Self-Care Ideas That You Can Start Today
The new buzzwords and latest trend: self-care.
Definition: Self-care is something intentional that we do to take care of our mental, physical health, and emotional health. Or spiritually speaking, mind, body, and soul.
I’ve noticed recently that many people believe that self-care should cost money when in fact it can be done for free despite what you may see on social media. Self-care is not a new concept and has existed for thousands of years and can be traced to spiritual practices like Buddhism where the Buddha said, “You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”
I’m willing to bet that Buddhist monks didn’t go out to high-end salon in order to refuel themselves and the work that they do, and you don’t need to as well - unless you want to or can afford it.
Please note: I really dislike using the buzzwords ‘self-care’ because I think it’s oversimplifying why you would want to do these loving acts on yourself in the first place. Self-care is only the tip of the iceberg and if you’re looking for alignment, authenticity, and truth, then your practice needs to go much deeper. However, I do understand that we all need to start somewhere in our own journey, and sometimes we just need to first start by escaping and getting a gasp of air from whatever it is that we have going on in life and that’s fine. I just don’t want to sound as if self-care will solve everything, but it is a component of something much more. If you’re more scientifically minded, then self-care can be used as stress reduction as well as shifting your head into being more mindful and present. It won’t solve everything, but it’s a start to self reflection and self awareness.
Below are just my 5-Free Self-Care Ideas that I do habitually. There is so much more you can do! Self care is about intentionally refueling yourself. If you want to read more about what self care is and is not, here’s a great article called “What Self-Care Is - And What It Isn’t.”
Rub my Feet aka DIY Foot Reflexology. Here’s a YouTube Video Link on how you can do it!
I usually do some form of this at night before I go to sleep. I also send a lot of thanks to my feet because the weight day-in-and-day-out on my feet is a lot and it’s cool to acknowledge how awesome your body is!
You can do this with your hands as an alternative as well.
Meditate. You can start off very simply with just only 3-minutes, and here’s an image from a meditation teacher in New York, Eva Kornet (IG: @evakornet). There are also a lot of guided meditation on YouTube as well!
Journal. This is a great way to really be in touch with yourself. Here’s a YouTube Video on ‘How to Journal with Prompts’. There’s a lot of different things you can journal about, but if you’re feeling stuck, I think the video is super helpful.
I usually journal about my thoughts and try to dig deeper into it or sometimes I like to journal as the future me back to the current me. It’s really fun and I think it sets the tone for what I can do to achieve that future state. Or sometimes I just write whatever the hell it is that I want.
Stare out the Window and Name 5 Cool Things. I some times get caught up on what’s not going right that I forget to really stop and smell the roses and this is what I do to remind myself that I’m surrounded by amazing and beautiful things.
Take a Bath. You don’t need to buy swanky bath stuff to give yourself a proper relaxing bath. Just fill your tub with warm water and hop in. Sure, you can add epsom salt, bath bubbles, essential oils, and/or other cool stuff but if you don’t have it, don’t worry just fill up your tub and get in.
Taking a bath does waste water, so I only do it about once a week.
If you don’t have a tub, I would fill up a wash basin with warm water and just stick my feet in it and relax. Or, maybe even do a foot massage!
