How to Self-Nurture Yourself!
Table of Contents
Let’s explore some new ways to self-nurture yourself without relying on food. I am excited about starting a New Year, which is a time of renewal and self-improvement. A time of goal setting and reflection. And for some of us, a time for restriction and overdoing it. This year, I hope you think about a kinder, gentler way to take care of yourself!
When thinking about health changes, most of us tend to focus on what we eat and exercise, but we often neglect our sleep and managing stress, which also play a big part in helping us feel our best.
I hope that reflecting more inward will help move our wellness from the inside out!
I hope that some of these self-nurturing ideas will inspire you to feel renewed and rejuvenated.
Self-Nurture Yourself Where We Are Often Neglected
What Does Self-Nurture Mean?
Nurture means to care for and encourage the development of something or someone.
I have been told that the word “nutrition” comes from the word nurture, and it is similar. And providing healthy foods that our body or someone we love needs is a way to take care of ourselves/them.
I often think about my parents and other people we love, making food, and we love to take care of ourselves. But sometimes this is the main way we think about it when we are trying to comfort ourselves, and that is okay sometimes.
Now that we have defined the meaning, I want to talk about other ways to take care of ourselves and provide comfort. Let’s talk a little more about this.
What is the Difference Between Self Nurture VS Self Care?
People often think about self-nurture as a way to treat ourselves, and truthfully, this is how I often think about it. While we often think of self-care as routine maintenance, like going to the dentist or getting your mammogram.
But Dr. Michaelson discussed the need to be able to care about ourselves with love, to be able to care for ourselves, so in a way, working on our deeper selves. So it may be that self-love and self-nurture are self-care, and when we feel good about ourselves, of course, we will take care of ourselves.
I also like how Krista, from a Life in Progress, talks about meeting our true self and becoming our friend. In order to truly love someone else, it seems like we need to first love ourselves as worthy human beings. Self-nurture your spirit, and the rest will come more naturally.
Here Are Some Self-Nurturing Examples
How to nurture yourself?
Here are some areas self self-nurturing behaviors that many of us neglect when it comes to nurturing ourselves.
- Getting Adequate Sleep
- Limiting Negative Self-Talk
- Reducing Stress
- Finding Out What Makes You Happy
Women often ask, “What are 5 self-care strategies to take care of myself?” I have ten of my favorites below.
Being a middle-aged woman who tries to take care of herself, here are my ways to heal my body and fill my soul.
Midlife Self-Care Strategies for a Fufilling Life:
How to take care of myself after 50?
1. Getting Adequate Sleep
Confession time: I have a difficult time sleeping. Whether it is my middle-aged hormones, the fact that I have a difficult time turning off my brain before bed, or that I am a “worry wort” who thinks of “all the what ifs” when I hit the pillow. I work hard on my sleep hygiene habits, and it has improved a lot over the past 10 years. However, some things can get me off track. The important thing is I continue to work on it without a pharmaceutical sleep aid, and most of the time it is effective!
Here are some tips to get a better night’s sleep:
http://www.vineripenutrition.com/5-ways-to-get-a-good-nights-sleep-improve-your-health/
2. Limiting the Negative Self-Talk
Does your inner dialogue speak politely to you or mean to you?
Oftentimes, at the beginning of the new year, we tend to want to wipe that slate clean, whether it be nutrition, fitness, organizing financial freedom, etc.
Black-and-white thinking is also called all-or-nothing thinking. Which is also known as dichotomous thinking, is when we categorize ourselves or our food choices as good or bad. When we exercise or do anything to take care of ourselves, we tend to think of it as all or nothing, with nothing in between as acceptable.
Let’s make new resolutions to create kinder, gentler, and more reasonable goals that you can keep and feel more love for yourself than ever! We often want a quick fix and not a long-term commitment to permanent lifestyle change, but small changes over time make a difference. It’s the unrealistic goals that can’t be sustained.
Take a look at some of these ideas for setting goals that you can live with to help you be successful:
http://www.vineripenutrition.com/reaching-your-new-years-health-goals/
3. Decreasing Stress and Its Effects on Our Health
Stress: We all have it, but many of us don’t focus on healthy ways to manage it. Some of us may even use self-destructive coping mechanisms that can harm us over the long term.
One of these is overeating. Check out two books below that I just love by Susan Albers, a psychologist who has 100 ways to soothe ourselves that don’t revolve around food. How many times have most of us popped in a bite of food instead of nurturing ourselves in other ways?
4. Get Some Sunshine
I am one of those people who tend to need sunlight, and during the winter months and I sometimes get the winter blahs. because of this, I try to bundle up and get some sunshine and walk every day unless I just can’t
I have tried to turn this challenge into something positive. I love to knit, embroider, write, cook, create, etc., so the darker winter months give me some quiet reflective time to set goals to finish projects. dress warm and cozy, light some essential oil fragrant candles, and grow some amaryllis and other bulbs.
I was thrilled to learn that there was a Danish term known as hygge that defines this warm and loving feeling! Check out this blog post from last year to learn more!
http://www.vineripenutrition.com/finding-the-joy-this-winter/
5. Move More and Make It Fun
Physical activity is a vital part of taking care of ourselves. And it is often a piece that many of us don’t have regularly. It is also a time that we can have fun. Growing up as a kid, I was always a swimmer, but as an adult, I haven’t had as much time in the water. Last week, I had the most incredible time taking a water aerobics class that I want to go again!
Moving to the mountains, I have had more time to hike; this activity fills my soul while it heals my body! What type of movement do you love? How can you get out and do it?
6. Focus on Healthy Relationships
Many people are supposed to love us they let us down and hurt us. For toxic people, we can set boundaries and learn healthy ways to cope. But we can counteract that by nurturing ourselves in healthy, positive ways. In addition, we can focus on our relationships with healthy people who brighten our lives, and we can provide them with that, too!
7. Including Gratitude for What We Have
Things aren’t always rosy, and we don’t always have everything we want. But there is a lot that we do have, and for that we can be grateful. And the practice of being grateful is a part of self-care and keeping us healthier and happier. And the more often that we include it, the better we will feel.
Here is an article that I put together on how to implement gratitude daily.
8. Make a Calendar/Schedule for Self-Care
For years, I was too absorbed in my career and being a mom/wife that I took little care of myself. It was my mother who told me to include time to stop and relax. And she also encouraged me to schedule my preventive medical visits even though I took care of myself.
At the end of my mom’s life, when she was unable to take care of herself, I took her to the visits she needed, and I am so thankful to have been able to do that. And that she was so instrumental in teaching me to do that.
9. Find Your Passionate Purpose: And do what you love
Why do we spend so much time doing things that we feel that we must do and less on what we love? What do you really like to do? Try to do more of it and enjoy your life more. It is something different for everyone. Write all those things that you love and include them more often in your life. Maybe just once a week, then more frequently until you get to look forward to things every day that you love! And isn’t that how life should be?
10. Nourish Your Body
Food is essential to life, and there are so many beautiful aspects of food that are very healing, the colors, textures, flavors, and the social aspect. Loving our bodies and eating should be an enjoyable part of our lives. I was socialized as a kid, like many of us, that food provides comfort and but there are many additional ways we can self-nurture and comfort ourselves.
I want to introduce Dr. Albers, a psychologist with the Cleveland Clinic who has written about ways to comfort ourselves without using food.
Here are Five Main Focus Areas for Self-Nurturing Yourself, According to Dr. Albers:
In Dr. Albers’ first book, she discusses these 5 main focus areas, and then she provides some self-nurturing examples that you can include in these areas in your life.
- Social-Support
- Distraction
- Relaxing
- Positive Thinking
- Mindfulness/Meditation
I would like to share a little bit about some of the things that she discusses.
Dr. Albers’s 50 More Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food
In this book, Dr. Albers discusses the ways to become more mindful to reduce the amount of emotional eating that someone does. Here are the main areas where you can be more mindful:
- Meditation
- Mindful Breathing
- Alternative Therapies
- Mindful Movement
- Yoga for Emotional Eating
- Expressive Arts Therapy
- Soothing Your Senses
Self-Nurturing Yourself Examples
What does nurturing yourself look like? Let’s take a glimpse into my self-soothing box!
Creating a Self-Soothing Box
How do you self-nurture yourself?
We talked a little bit about how to self-nurture your spirit. Now let’s talk about self-nurture behaviors and self-nurture activities!
One way can be putting together your self-soothing box.
I love the idea that Dr. Albers shares to make an emergency self-care kit so it is all ready when you need it! I put together one that has overflowed with some of my favorite things to help reduce my stress.
Everyone’s self-care kits will be filled with different things that help each of us! I look forward to hearing what helps you reduce your stress and how to nurture you! Here are some of the things that I love to nurture myself with in my emergency self-nurturing kit:
- knitting needles and yarn
- herbal tea
- enjoyable reading
- essential oil
- hand lotion
- cozy socks
- handmade tea mug
If you have not heard about the damage stress can do to our health, here is one of my previous blog posts that I want to share. There are also a lot of other ways to fight inflammation in our bodies.
http://www.vineripenutrition.com/7-ways-to-help-fight-inflammation/
Make a Reverse Bucket List
Be grateful for all the things that you have.
Don’t spend time fretting and regretting; think of all the good things that you have done in your life. Focus on the good that you have done for others and yourself. I love the idea from Kate Scarlata to make a Reverse Bucket List. This list reflects on the places we have been and what we have done for others. Not just what we hope to do! I am going to start one of these!
http://blog.katescarlata.com/2018/01/01/reverse-bucket-list-new-year/
Implementing Ways to Self-Nurture Yourself
I hope that you are able to include some ways to self-nurture yourself in your wellness routine! It is important to take care of our internal needs, and not only our outward physical health. Self-care tips for women in midlife are more important than ever in order to take care of ourselves!
As an Asheville registered dietitian nutritionist, I love to share ideas to help improve people’s lives! I have lots of great ways to take care of yourself coming up!
Implement your self-nurturing plan. I would love to hear how your plan is going to nurture you.
If you are interested in my free 5-day class to fight inflammation, sign up at the top of any blog post at the top of the page!