Do you feel like you’re always on the go with little downtime? That’s because you probably are. I’ve been there too! Basically, you’re not leaving yourself time to recover from life itself. It’s time to stop whatever it is you’re doing, listen to your body to understand what you need, and create a self care plan that works for you.

Self care is vital for your individual health and happiness. Finding time for self-care activities is hard enough, but finding reliable methods to turn to is even harder especially with a busy schedule. Listen, I totally get it and wanted to provide you with a few tips that helped me create my own reliable self care plan. 

Here’s how I implement my self care plan:

Block off time

Print out your weekly schedule and block out times when you are available and/or at home. If you usually accomplish household tasks during these times, split those blocks down further. Designate specific time for any self care activity. You also may want to over-dedicate time for this during the first few weeks. As you become more used to practicing and utilizing self care activities while determining how much you need, you can better fine-tune these time blocks and let them work to your advantage.

Identify different types of self care

Find different types of self care that you may be interested in putting into practice. If you like to go out and hike, write that down. If you like to paint or color, add that to the list. If you like music, choose specific music genres that you like and how they make you feel. Try classical or meditation music to calm down, pop music to cheer up, etc. List writing your own music or learning how to read music as a possible activity as well.

Essentially, get creative with your most prevalent interests in life. Try your creativity at stretching them into short but interesting activities. Also, don’t over complicate this list. Just choose things that you love and things that make you happy.

Combine Activities

Next, go into more detail on each possible activity you wrote down in your list. List how much time each activity would require to be meaningful and helpful in one sitting. Then, consider how you like to spend your free time.

Do you like to do one thing for long periods of time or are you easily distracted and prefer having multiple activities to bounce around?

Having both types of activities is important to keep your self care routine fresh and balanced. However, you may find it easier to try activities with similar requirements of time first.

Fit a few activities into the time slots you created earlier. While you may have some activities that are short enough to balance even more, try not to go over this number. Instead, focus on being fully present in each of the activities.

Incorporate new skills

While you may love the new activities you’ve found, be sure to reflect on them as well. In many cases, activities based off of hobbies and original interests have many aspects in which they can still grow.

If you love to draw, set aside time to draw what you are comfortable with and most interested in. Also, constantly work on self development and continue learning new skills. While some forms of self-care are sufficient in doing nothing and focusing on rest, self-improvement and learning new skills also creates feelings of success and happiness.

Go slow

While self care is essential to your happiness and well-being, it’s not always easy to implement right away. Give yourself a break if you fall short of your original self care goal and remember that this goal is not supposed to stress you out. This process is only what you make it! Go at your own pace and enjoy the journey!

How do you currently practice self care? Comment below!

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