Every media outlet we turn on, from online/social to the local and national news on TV, the focus is on new numbers, new stats, new information on the COVID-19 outbreak. States are starting to take initiative and issue a lockdown. With all this uncertainty causing worry and anxiety, let’s try to take a moment and just slow down. Take time to take care of yourself and your family. Take time to prepare a nice meal and sit down at eat it as a family, sans phone and TV. Take time to pop some popcorn and spend quality family time watching a movie (we watched Peanut Butter Falcon last night on Amazon…. I highly recommend it – super cute show – Tom even had several good hearted laughs!)

Take some time to treat yourself to self-care.

Go ahead, google self-care. Seriously, do it…. You just joined 3,920,000,000 other people (how many is that? Trillion, gazillion?)

By definition, Self–care is any activity that we do deliberately in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Although it’s a simple concept in theory, it’s something we very often overlook.
Good self–care is key to improved mood and reduced anxiety.

To me, it means to take care of myself. Take care of my mental and physical state. To surround myself with things that propel me forward in life. Hang around with positive and influential people. Do activities that fill me up. It means that I remove myself from people or situations that don’t align with my goals and drain my spirits. Living in a small town can be a challenge with this mindset. Often times the activities you do and the crowd you’re around is out of convenience, rather than intention.

I challenge you to take notice. How do you feel after doing something or after hanging with your crowd? Lifted, happy, positive – OR – depleted, spent, burned out? I’m not saying to kick everyone to the curb, but just having the knowledge and wherewithal of your emotions will help you prepare for the next time.

Self-care is about giving ourselves relief when we feel overwhelmed. It’s also about making yourself a priority and do the things that make YOU happy. (hello, it’s called SELF care!)  

Here’s my list of 25 things that I consider self-care:

• Sitting on my patio with the firepit on
• Pontoon ride
• Motorcycle ride
• Reading a good book
• Taking time in the morning to enjoy a cup of coffee
• Massage
• Pedicure (or manicure)
• Catching up with friends
• Do a workout
• Take a bath (bonus points for Epsom salt & essential oils)
• Give myself a facial
• Take a nap
• Unplug from social media (it helps to leave phone in the car / out of sight out of mind)
• Take 15 minutes to vent about your frustrations using pen and paper, then rip up the paper
• Tidy your work area
• Take a yoga class
• Go for a hike
• Spend a half hour and lay in the grass (catch some sun rays, or watch the stars)
• Clean my car
• Catch up on Netflix show
• Plan and cook a nice dinner
• Buy fresh flowers for your kitchen or work area (OR BOTH)
• Watch the sunset / sunrise
• Pop some popcorn and watch a chick flick
• Make some DIY body scrubs from Pinterest

There you have it. My list of go-to self-care routines that help me decompress and shift my mindset. Maybe you will relate with some of them and give them a try for yourself. Let me know if you do and what you think.