Practice Self-Care this New Year!
The Importance of Self Care for Health and Stress Management
It’s a new year and I am looking forward to practicing some self-care for health and stress management! I am so excited to look ahead to the adventure of what 2019 has in store but I also want to be living in the moment and enjoying life. And not dwelling on the “what ifs” of the past.
I know that I don’t have to tell you that often our worst critic is our very own self! Why we want to put ourselves down when we can be the one person at any moment to build ourselves in a whole, healthy person is life’s most mysterious question. I used to work with a client who used to set a goal to “Be her own best friend”. I love this concept so much; it was my inspiration for this post.
Recently, another client shared with me that her new year’s goal was to embrace herself with healthy hugs and be good to herself. I absolutely loved this and told her that I was going to share it! So, as we unwrap this brand-new year and make it ours, let’s sprinkle it with bits of self-care and love!
Taking care of our own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs and it plays a big role in helping us stay healthy and also helps manage our stress!
I have put together a Feel-Good Calendar for the month of January that you can download with ideas on ways to take care of you at the bottom of this blog post. If you want a copy of this calendar, please contact me.
10 Ways to Take Care of Yourself
- Make the commitment to get started on self-care
- Create a Self-nurturing box
- Exploring the Health Benefits of Tea
- Adding Minding Moments to Your Day https://www.dailydoseofmindfulmoments.com/mindful-moments/
- Get Adequate Sleep
- Listening to Relaxing Music
- Being Physically Active
- Reducing Stress
- Self-nurture yourself with healthy eating
- Develop Healthy Relationships
- Being Grateful for the Things You Have
Ways to Implement Self-Care Self-Love
- Making a commitment to get started on self-care
Working towards commitment and making a plan to implement self-care is the start of the process. Setting goals to get started and creating a plan along with finding a support person to discuss what you plan to do and share how it is going can be helpful. - Exploring the Health Benefits of Tea
Drinking tea instead of alcohol and other high calorie beverages can be beneficial to helping you give yourself some self-love. It also can be a nurturing thing to do instead of eating when you are really hungry but are yearning for something to comfort yourself. I like to keep a variety of teas and drink my tea out of a handmade mug. - Adding Mindful Moments
Being in the present instead of thinking about things in the past that went wrong or worrying about the “what ifs” in the future can be less helpful especially if we are dwelling on them. Being in the moment and really paying attention can help ground you. Writing in a journal can be a good exercise in staying present - Getting adequate Sleep
Staying on a consistent sleep schedule by going to bed and waking up at the same time can help you keep your circadian rhythm healthy and also it helps also with your habits. Staying away from televisions and screens at least 30-60 minutes also helps. - Listening to Relaxing Music
Listening to the news can be very stressful at times. Treat yourself to some relaxing music every day to calm and soothe you. - Being Physically Active
Get to moving to keep your body healthy and feel your best! Walking is always a great choice. Talk with your doctor to see if you need to take special precautions. - Reducing Stress
I hope that all of the things on list help reduce stress for you. Managing our stress is an important part of our health. Self-care is an important part of stress management. - Self-nurture yourself with healthy eating
Being a nutritionist here in Asheville, I always encourage healthy, delicious foods as part of your healthy lifestyle. - Develop Healthy Relationships
Making sure that the people who you are spending time with are caring and not self-destructive is important. If they are harmful to you, change the relationship with therapy and self-help or find new relationships. - Being Grateful for the Things You Have
Instead of worrying what everyone else has focus on all the things in your life that you are grateful for in your life. Things don’t always make us happy but gratitude for the most important things will. I am happy for my family and fruits, having food and shelter and being able to move my body and do some things that I love.
Additional Resources for Self-Care for Health Care
Taking care of ourselves is an important part of our health care. Here are some “take care of you” resources.
- Celebrate the Season of Hygge
Live the life of cozy/Hygge this winter. It is all about comfort. Check out this post for a little bit of information.
2. Here are some resources from a TED Talk and Bustle that also have some great ways to take care of yourself!
https://www.ted.com/playlists/299/the
3. Here are some things on the Vine Ripe Nutrition site that you may also find helpful:
smart goals for nutrition (vineripenutrition.com)
self-nurture (vineripenutrition.com)
importance of healthy habits (vineripenutrition.com)
This Feel-Good Calendar is a Helpful Tool Providing Ways to Take Care of You!
Your Action Plan for Self-Care Self-Love
I will be sharing lots of ideas throughout the month to inspire you on the Vine Ripe Nutrition blog and social media. I hope that you will try some of these along with me and share some of your suggestions too! It is so important to add self-care for health and stress management. Self-care helps keep our entire bodies healthy!
Add a little self-care and self-love to your life! Self-nourish more!
As an Asheville nutritionist, I love helping my clients live healthier lives and self-care is part of this. If there is a way that I can help encourage you, here are some of the ways that I can help here.
In addition, if you are interested here is more information on our women’s nutrition program.
